


The 1975 Oneshots

by Sunset_In_My_Veins



Category: The 1975 (Band)
Genre: Adorable, F/M, Fluff, Humour, One Shot Collection, Reader-Insert, There's a puppy, What more do you want?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25462432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunset_In_My_Veins/pseuds/Sunset_In_My_Veins
Summary: A buncha short 1975 related oneshots
Relationships: Adam Hann/Reader, Matthew Healy/Reader, Matty Healy/Reader
Kudos: 15





	1. Mayhem - Matty Healy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matty adopts a puppy, Matty ends up back at the pet store more than he expected. Short, fluffy Matthew Healy x Reader sorta thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it was too late to incorporate any of this into I Know That I’ll Lose, but let it be known that Matty getting a puppy did not go unnoticed by my writing inspiration. Have this adorable thing

It had been three days since Matty brought a new puppy back to the studio. Three days of a black fluff ball romping about under their feet any time they tried to move from one room to another. George had tried to convince him that it wasn’t a great idea to get _another_ dog considering how little time he spent at home. But he regretted missing out on the majority of Allen’s childhood and he was bound to London for the foreseeable future, so he figured now was as good a time as any to get a puppy. Things were going pretty well so far - Mayhem adjusted nicely to the new environment and he was a (mostly) welcome addition to the homely space of the studio. The only issue was that he didn’t seem to be eating much. Or… at all. On the first day it was easy enough to assume that he had already been fed at the pet store and wasn’t hungry, the second day could be put down to settling in nerves, but Matty was beginning to get concerned that he still didn’t seem to want his food. Perhaps it was the taste? He figured that all dog food probably tasted fairly similar from brand to brand, but maybe not if you were the target audience.

“I’m goin’ out, George.” He shouted over his shoulder as he grabbed his keys and slipped his wallet into his pocket.

“Where?” His friend’s voice called back down the hallway.

“Pet store to get Mayhem food. Make sure he doesn’t destroy anything.” He answered, about the pull the door shut behind him before he heard George continue.

“He’s not _my_ dog, Matt.” He replied, the mild annoyance seeping into the tone of his voice.

“You own stuff in here too.” Matty half-sung back. “Bye!”

The shop he had gotten Mayhem from was only a few minutes down the road. As he stepped up to the counter, he rehearsed one last time in his head what he had come in here for. He didn’t want to seem like a bad dog owner, like it was something that _he_ was doing that was resulting in his pet not eating. But he was quickly beaten to the punch as the cashier turned to face him. She gave him a curious look before the recognition flashed across her face. “You came in and bought the black cane corso the other day, yeah?” She asked with a friendly smile. He nodded in response. “What was it…” She frowned, clearly trying her best to remember. “Matthew?”

“Matty’s better.” He answered, finding himself returning the smile.

“And Mayhem, right?” She asked. He was mildly impressed that she remembered so many details from a fifteen-minute interaction.

He laughed lightly, “Yeah, that’s it.”

“How’s he going?” She asked with excitement.

He went to start going on about how cute and playful he was - as he had to anyone else who asked - before catching himself. “Well, that’s actually why I’m here.” He started, pulling his mind back to the reason that he had walked in. “He just doesn’t seem to want to eat the food that I had at home?” He asked hesitantly.

“Oh, that’s no problem. I’ll show you what we were feeding him here.” She said as she quickly stepped around the counter and started walking towards the dog food. “It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s better quality and more palatable to most dogs. That’s why we use it for the dogs here.” She explained to Matty as she led him through the store.

“That’s fine.” He shrugged. “As long as he likes it, the cost isn’t an issue.”

“Wish there were more dog owners like you.” She huffed under her breath, earning a quiet laugh out of him in response. After a quick scan of the aisle, she picked up a fairly large white bag and handed it out to him. “He was eating this stuff when he was with us and seemed to enjoy it.”

“Thanks. Hopefully he still likes it.” He chuckled as he gratefully took the bag.

“I’ll put it through for you.” She added, nodding back in the direction of the counter. Matty followed behind closely as he clutched the dog food closer to him. He wasn’t entirely sure if it was just because he hadn’t had much in the way of human contact with anyone other than George for the last few weeks, but this felt… oddly nice. If he didn’t have a starving canine at home, he probably would’ve made an attempt to drag out the interaction. But, he did. So, he paid for the dog food, and continued on his way.

* * *

Thankfully for Matty, Mayhem took to the new food very well. He was eating regularly as soon as the old stuff was out of his bowl. And for a while, things were great with the pup - he took naps on the couch with his owner, he stayed in his crate at night without complaints, he only stole small amounts of food off of low lying, unattended plates - it was all going swimmingly. However, it was clear that there were still a few teething problems. Quite literally.

“Hey! Drop that!” Matty yelled as he chased Mayhem under the table.

“I told you-” George started from his seat on the couch as the dog squirmed his way through the chair legs and continued running through the house with an amp lead in his mouth.

“Shut it, George.” Matty shouted back, trying to right himself too quickly and smacking his head on the underside of the table. He stared daggers into the back of the drummer’s head while he regained his balance before running after his dog.

“You can’t keep letting him chew stuff every time we have to shut him out of the room.” He continued as the duo suddenly ended up in front of him when Mayhem tried to (unsuccessfully) fit himself under a couch.

“He’s _fine_.” He tried to reason through gritted teeth as he picked the puppy up. As soon as his paws were off the ground, he let go of the lead. But alas, there was no saving it, his needle-sharp puppy teeth had already done their damage.

“No, he’s _not_. That’s the second thing he’s wrecked today.” George argued as he picked up the cord and wound it up. “Just put him in his crate.” He suggested.

Matty held Mayhem up to make sure that he hadn’t hurt himself by chewing on things he wasn’t meant to, sighing in relief when he seemed fine. “But he shouldn’t have to be holed up in the crate just because we don’t want him making noise in the room with us.” It didn’t seem fair to this poor dog to have to spend half of the day cooped up just because he had production work to do. 

“Well, you have to do something.”

“I know, I know.” He snapped back, pulling the dog closer to himself as he tried to think of other ideas. He was just bored, not being naughty on purpose.

“Because if he moves onto anything of mine, I’m not gonna be happy about it. Mayhem might be meeting Allen sooner than planned.” George said with a pointed look.

“I’ll just get him more things to keep him occupied.” Matty said, the idea quickly making more and more sense the more the gears turned in his brain. “I can go get him those puzzle feeder things, and those toys that you put peanut butter in, and chew toys. I’ll go get him a bunch of that shit.” He said as he put his puppy back on the ground, who instantly bounded off happily to go destroy something else.

“You better go soon because-”

“I _know_. I’m going right now.” He nodded as he grabbed his keys off the coffee table.

He hadn’t really expected to be back in this pet store three times in eight days, but here he was. Again. Feeling like a terrible dog owner. Again. He walked up to the counter, seeing the girl that had served him the last two times stocking shelves with her back to him. Matty cleared his throat, trying to politely get her attention. “Erm, hi.” He smiled as she turned around. 

“Hey, Matty!” She grinned back. “Didn’t expect you back so soon. How can I help?”

 _Fuck_. She still remembered his name and he didn’t even know hers after what was now three interactions. Was she just good with names or was there just not that many customers coming through here? He supposed probably not at the moment. His eyes quickly scanned over the name tag on her uniform, committing it to memory. _Wait, shit, she asked me a question._ “I need a chew toy, something to keep Mayhem occupied if I’m out or busy.” He finally answered.

“Ah, is he getting bored?” She asked with a curious look.

“He must be, because he chewed through one of my guitar leads.” Matty chuckled, trying to make light of a bad situation.

But the look of shock on her face blew any attempts of that right out of the water. “It wasn’t on, was it?” She asked with a clear sense of worry.

“Thankfully, no.” He answered with a shake of his head.

She let out a relieved breath. “Good to hear.” She nodded, stepping around the counter and starting to walk into the store. He supposed that was his invitation to follow. “Poor buddy could’ve done himself some serious damage.”

The two of them stood in front of a wall of various pet toys and the sheer amount of variety was borderline overwhelming to Matty. He was rather glad that he had sought out help. She turned to him as she grabbed a couple of options off the hooks. “Was it expensive?” She asked.

“The cord wasn’t, the guitar is.” He huffed. “But the cord is easy to replace. I just don’t want him deciding to chew on my other equipment.” He added quickly. He didn’t want to come across as angry about what was realistically quite a small problem. It just needed fixing sooner rather than when George decided to wring his neck over it.

“You play other stuff?” She questioned.

“I play a lot of things.” He shrugged casually, not wanting to make a huge fuss about it. Matty enjoyed that these interactions were about his dog rather than the aspects of his life most other people chose to focus on. Not that he could blame them, his career took up the majority of his life, but the change was nice.

“A man of many talents.” She noted.

“And a master of none of them.” He laughed.

She turned to him, handing him a selection of chew toys. “He’s probably starting to feel his adult teeth coming through and wanting some stuff to gnaw on. Something like a rope toy or soft plastic might be good, or even a rawhide treat.” She explained. “You could maybe get him bones as well.” He nodded as he intently listened to her advice. “Or if you were after things to keep him occupied, you can also get some puzzle toys. But those usually require treats to dispense for the dog to want to play with them”

“Yeah, can I grab some of them too?” He said eagerly. It took about ten minutes for her to show him all of the options available, Matty relishing in the chance to have some casual chit chat in between aisles. By the time she had shown him just about everything a puppy could use to kill time, he had a shopping basket full of options to entertain Mayhem. Surely this would be enough to keep George happy. “Thanks for this.” He said with an appreciative smile as she began scanning them through the register.

“It’s no problem. Always happy to help out if it means an animal is gonna be better off.” She beamed back at him. He was suddenly hit with the reminder that he enjoyed their interaction the last time he was here, and he was enjoying this one more. But the little voice in the back of his mind was quick to mention the puppy who was probably chewing through a soundboard at the moment.

“Hopefully I can get these to him before he works his teeth into something else.” He added sheepishly.

“Well, I’ll let you get out of here then.” She handed him the heavy bag of pet toys. “I’ll see you soon.” She said with an expression that Matty probably would’ve called humorous. Was that a joke? Clearly three visits in one week wasn’t usual. But he figured she probably wouldn’t have been as friendly to him if she minded that. And he couldn’t really say that he felt bad about it.

“Apparently, at the rate I’m goin’.” He laughed back over his shoulder as he walked back to his car. A nagging feeling sat at the back of his mind that he was probably going to be back here pretty soon.

* * *

The toys did the trick for keeping Mayhem away from any expensive equipment. And for keeping George off Matty’s back (for now). Between things to chew on and things to solve, that puppy barely had time for cuddles and naps. That didn’t stop him from trying to push his luck on occasion, though. Matty was sitting at his desk in the middle of an interview when he spied Mayhem about to wrap his teeth around one of his shoes. “Hold on a second, let me just shout at my dog.” He said offhandedly to the screen as he pushed himself back to get a better view of what he was trying to do. As soon as he called out to him, Mayhem bounded over like nothing had happened. “I’ve got you loads of toys, you don’t need to chew that.” As if completely understanding his owner the puppy picked up the rope toy that was sat at the base of the coffee table. Matty eyed the rope toy that Mayhem was chewing on, thinking back to the girl at the pet store. It had been a week since his last visit. Would it be weird if he went back again? It would definitely be weird if he went there and someone else was working. It would defeat the whole point. He tuned back into the interview, the thought of going back for social reasons playing on his mind as he carried on.

After an hour the interview had wrapped up. It was just before three in the afternoon, the pet store would still be open. Matty quietly picked up his car keys, hoping to make a silent escape. But he had no such luck. “Where are you going?” George asked with a frown over the back of the lounge.

“Uh, out.” He shrugged, trying and failing to be nonchalant. His best friend just stared him down until he answered properly. “The pet store.” He eventually confessed.

George had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew the answer to the question he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t help himself, “What for this time?”

Matty paused for a moment, trying to think of a reason to go back. “A new bed.” He answered with a firm nod.

“That bed’s fine.” George gestured to the practically new bed sitting in the crate.

“He’ll need a bigger one soon.” He reasoned with himself more than anyone else, making his way to the door before he could talk himself out of it.

“Why’re you _really_ going?” He heard George ask, the snigger underlying his question echoing down the hallway.

“I’ll be back soon. Bye!”

Within fifteen minutes Matty found himself standing at the - now fairly familiar - counter of the pet store. Despite his bad luck getting out of the house, he was fortunately facing some good luck now. “Back again?” She asked, frowning at the man in front of her curiously.

“I, erm, need a new bed for Mayhem.” He knew it was a poor excuse for coming back in here, because with her memory she’d likely know that he bought one when he picked Mayhem up. But maybe it would be enough to get him by. “He’s taken to thinking that the couch is his.” She seemed fairly unphased by this, just nodding along.

“That’ll happen if you let him sleep on it.” She said, cracking a bit of a smile.

“You’re very knowledgeable about all this dog stuff.” Matty said casually as he tried to strike up more of a conversation.

“Well, I work at a pet store.” She reminded him.

“That’s not-” He stopped, taking in a breath as he tried to get himself back on track. “Do you have one of your own?”

“Yeah! I’ve got a golden retriever.” The vibe of the conversation instantly shifted into a territory Matty was much more comfortable with. She seemed a lot more excited to chat now that he’d brought up her own pets. He was happy to move things away from awkward ground and onto some stuff he could be a bit surer about.

 _That works_. “I’ve heard that those are a really friendly breed.”

“Oh, Roscoe’s got an amazing temperament.” She nodded.

“Mayhem needs another dog friend like that.” He started with a sigh, “He’s so high energy that most dogs don’t want a bar of it.”

She raised an eyebrow at the obvious hint he was dropping, but decided to step around it for the moment. “He doesn’t do well at dog parks?” She asked.

Matty shook his head, “I think it’s all too overwhelming. He gets overzealous and then other dogs snap at him when they don’t want to play that much.” Which, in Matty’s defence, was true. When he took Mayhem to a dog park two days ago, his dog spent most of his time chasing a tennis ball because the other dogs didn’t want to put up with a puppy. “Maybe he’d do better in a one on one environment.” He shrugged.

She couldn’t help the laugh that came out at his lack of subtlety. “Oh, really?” She asked, trying to recompose herself. Matty supposed that was probably his invitation to just cut to the chase.

“Would you be up for it? I could meet you at the dog park down the road sometime next week.” He suggested, trying his best to keep his cool. She thought about this for what felt like a solid minute but he was sure it was probably only a few seconds.

“Sure.” She nodded eventually. “Tuesday morning?”

“I’m sure I could fit that in.” He grinned back.

There was a brief moment of silence where Matty just took in the moment of success until he took his cue to leave before he blew it. “Well, I’ll see you then.” He said as he went to step away from the counter.

“Wait,” She said, stopping him in his tracks as he turned back to her. Shit, what did he forget? “You came in here for a dog bed, didn’t you?”

 _Oh, no_. “Uh, erm, yeah, I suppose I did.” He mumbled quietly as he scratched at the back of his neck. “I’ll go grab one.” He nodded, making his way to the back of the store. After quickly berating his own idiotic memory he grabbed a slightly larger bed than the one Mayhem already had and brought it back up to the counter. He was fairly sure he’d just undone any good work that he had worked towards. Handing the bed over he tried his best to at least be a functioning human being until he got back to his car.

“Hopefully this keeps him off the couch.” The cashier said as she handed it back to him, the humour of the situation pretty evident in her eyes. “And let me know what time on Tuesday.” She added as she passed him a piece of paper with her number on it. _Thank fuck for that_.

* * *

George had of course given Matty a hard time when he came home and revealed the details of how he nearly came home without what he had left the house for. However, Matty couldn’t really have cared any less, because it still ended up working out all right for him. Very few texts were exchanged other than the ones to arrange an exact time to meet up on Tuesday. He got there fifteen minutes early, sitting on a bench with his puppy in his lap as he tried to calm down his racing mind. He had decided to buy her a coffee on the way as a small gesture to say thanks. Once he had done so, he realised he had no idea if she even liked coffee and suddenly regretted the whole plan. But he had two coffees now, so he might as well offer it. Surely it would still be seen as a nice thought? He needed to calm down. Maybe _he_ shouldn’t have had a coffee.

“It’ll be fine.” He told himself as he took in a deep breath. “Won’t it, buddy?” He asked as he nudged Mayhem. His dog looked back up at him with his large brown eyes, giving no indication that he was nervous. “Well of course it will be fine for you. At the end of the day you still have a small fortune of pet supplies to go home to.” Matty huffed as he ruffled Mayhem’s ears. His dog seemed very happy about this development.

He heard her call his name before he saw her, turning to see a large golden retriever bounding his way. From his position on the bench, he and Mayhem came nose to nose as the new dog ran up to introduce himself. It hadn’t been intentional but it definitely worked very well for their first meeting to not overwhelm the poor puppy with height differences. When the two dogs seemed to have no hostility between them, Matty put Mayhem down on the ground. As soon as his paws touched the grass the two of them were off. He half kept an eye on his dog running amok as he turned to the girl sitting next to him.

“This is for you,” He said as he held out the second coffee. “as thanks.”

She let out an appreciative noise as she picked it up. “You didn’t have to get me this.”

“I wanted to.” He corrected.

“Well… thank you.” She nodded, flashing him a friendly smile. _So far so good._

After twenty minutes of playing, the two canines were finally starting to calm down a bit. “They’re getting on really well.” She noted, taking the last sip of her coffee.

“Yeah, it’s good to see.” He agreed with a nod. “Allen was so much easier to socialise, but he was a much calmer puppy than Mayhem is.” Matty said with a sigh.

She paused for a moment at that, considering what he had just said. “An old dog?” She asked.

“Uh, no, he’s not that old. He’s about five.” He answered.

“You have another dog?” She frowned.

He probably shouldn’t have mentioned that in hindsight. “Well, sort of, I co-own him with my mate Sam. He doesn’t live with me.” He tried his best to talk his way around it, but he knew exactly what was coming next. It was gonna come up sooner or later, he supposed.

“Why didn’t you just socialise Mayhem with the dog you already have?” She questioned.

“Because then I wouldn’t have had an excuse to ask you out for a coffee.” He answered honestly. 

She laughed loudly, but didn’t seem upset by this information. That was good. “You could’ve just asked me out for coffee as opposed to going to all this trouble.”

“Ah, but where’s the fun in that?”


	2. The Tension’s Overflowing P1 - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rightio, this should’ve been finished yesterday but I have had a FUN weekend, so here it is today instead! The first prompt that I have written from my fantastic prompt list requested by the lovely @tooshhhy on tumblr. Enjoy!

“I just think, that, er…” I started, suddenly losing my train of thought when I stared across the bus at Matty and that dumb, expectant smile sitting on his face.

“Mm?” He prompted, waiting for me to keep going.

“It’s just… not… uh…” I’d been trying to get this sentence out for what felt like the last five minutes. Why the _fuck_ couldn’t I get my head sorted?

“Come on, get it together.” He chuckled quietly.

“Quit smiling at me.” I eventually blurted out.

“Why?” Matty just kept that cocky smirk on his face.

“I can’t stop messing up my sentences when you look at me like that.” I admitted. There were downfalls to having a major crush on one of your best mates – being unable to get out a coherent thought when they looked at you like _that_ , was one of them.

“You can’t stop messing up your sentences because you’re drunk.” He argued with a pointed look.

“I’m not _that_ drunk.” I tried to defend myself, but I knew full well that was a lie. I turned my gaze back out the window, hoping that looking at the passing scenery would help me settle down my motion sickness, and that staring at Matty less would make my heart stop hammering in my chest. Either would be nice.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have another shot.” My mohawked friend laughed loudly. I tore my eyes away from the window, shooting a glare at him.

“I’m fine it’s just-” I paused for a moment to stop myself from retching, clearing my throat before continuing, “this bus is just really bumpy.” Staring out the window was at least helping the nausea somewhat, even if it wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked. Leaning my head on the window, although nice for a brief moment as the coolness settled in, didn’t feel overly great as soon as the bus started moving again and my brain felt like it was being rattled from the inside out. After another minute of trying to regulate my breathing and getting my churning stomach under control, I felt someone sit next to me.

“As much as I know you always want to impress me, you shouldn’t do it at the detriment of your health.” He grinned, now suddenly sitting much closer to me than what he had been. I was all too quickly overwhelmed with the smell of the tequila he’d been drinking all night and the joint he’d smoked before we got on the bus. I hated to admit that it was strangely comforting in it’s familiarity.

“I wasn’t trying to impress you.” I defended with a frown, feeling my words slur slightly on my tongue. “You’re just a bad influence.”

“If I was such a bad influence, you wouldn’t hang out with me so much.” Matty shot back as he suddenly pulled me against his side. The sudden movement caused a lurch in my stomach, but the feeling of being so close to him was too nice to pull myself away from.

Matty’s warmth was easy enough to settle into, and the overwhelming feeling of cosiness had me reflecting on the evening’s events. The band played a show to celebrate the release of their last EP. We went to go get drinks after. Eventually a few others peeled off from the bar and made their way home. Matty, George and myself had been the only ones left in the end, kicking on until nearly two in the morning. I was fairly certain we had been drinking the entire time since before the show until we got on this bus. No wonder my head was spinning. My memory was fairly hazy, but suddenly one detail came back to me in a flash. “I have to tell you something _really_ important and if I don’t tell you now, I won’t get the chance.” I said abruptly.

“What?” Matty asked in concern as he looked down at me.

“I lost your wallet.” I said quietly, feeling the guilt settle in the pit of my stomach as soon as I said it. I remembered using his card to pay for a drink at the bar, and then had no recollection of it after that.

“No, you didn’t.” He said softly as he shook his head.

“Yes, I did.”

“No.” He shuffled slightly, reaching into his back pocket to show me. “I’ve got it here.” He said as he held the wallet out as proof.

“Are you sure?” I asked, staring at the object in question doubtfully. To be fair, my vision was slightly blurred as I tried to focus on it to verify if it was, in fact, Matty’s wallet.

“Yes.” He said with a small laugh.

“This is why I love you.” I mumbled against his shoulder, letting my eyes slip shut now that I knew I’d not lost something so important.

“Yeah?

“Mm.”

“Tell me that when you’re sober.” I didn’t have to be looking at him to know that teasing smile that was ever-present on his stupidly handsome face was back.

“Sure.” I nodded, suddenly find myself too tired to keep responding.

* * *

_I tried my best to keep myself still as she slept away on my shoulder, but these bumpy fucking roads weren’t overly helpful in that regard. We weren’t too far now from where we had to get off, so it wouldn’t be much of a nap, but I felt it might help her sober up at least a bit. I watched as George walked up from the front of the bus to make sure at least one of us was alert._

_“You good?” He asked as he leaned against one of the seats in front of us._

_“Yeah.” I nodded. “You?”_

_“Fine.” His gaze flicked down to the girl snoring away on my shoulder. “I know I’ve asked before but…” He paused for a moment, looking like he was debating what he was about to asked next. “Are you sure you guys are just friends?” He asked, looking back up at me._

_“Yeah, of course we are.” I said as I rolled my eyes. George just shrugged and walked off._

* * *

I woke up the next morning feeling like I was overheating and getting progressively more nauseous the more I laid there. For a few minutes I tried to roll over to get to a cooler position, only to realise I was on a couch and there _wasn’t_ a cooler position. Eventually I had to kick off the blanket I had on and by then, I was awake and there was no going back. I stared at the ceiling for a few moments, feeling my head spin slightly as I took in the room around me. This was Matty and George’s flat. He must’ve dragged me back here last night. How had we even gotten here? I vaguely remembered getting on a bus after we left the bar, but after that it was a bit hazy. The more I woke up, the more I felt the dryness in my mouth and the headache setting in behind my eyes. Ugh. Today was going to suck.

“How you feeling?” I heard Matty’s familiar voice ask as he stepped into my line of sight.

“Shit.” I groaned.

“Sounds about right.” He laughed as he perched himself on the arm of the couch at my feet. “Want a glass of water?”

“Yes.” I nodded, instantly regretting moving my head. “And maybe a bowl.” I just heard him chuckle from the other room.

He came back a few moments later with a large plastic Tupperware container and a glass of water, both of which he sat beside me on the end table.

“Where’s George?” I asked, realising I’d not heard any other sounds other that Matty padding around the kitchen.

“Out somewhere.” He shrugged. “He wasn’t here when I woke up.”

I leaned over, grabbing the glass of water and noticing that it was quite bright outside. “What’s the time?” I frowned.

“Nearly midday.”

“Fuck.”

“I’ve not been up long either.” I took a proper look at him in that moment. He seemed rested enough, and didn’t seem to be showing the same signs of a hangover that I was. I mean, he was upright for a start. He ran a hand through his hair as I continued to scrutinise his current state.

“How’re you looking so chipper?” I eventually questioned. At the time, I thought he’d been drinking just as much as I had been.

“Practice.” He smirked. I just rolled my eyes in response.

Matty wandered off shortly after that, saying something about ‘writing something down’ and leaving me to my own devices to slowly sort out my hangover. Thankfully, I didn’t need the bowl in the end. My stomach felt volatile, but steady enough for me to be able to sit up properly on the couch. I turned his TV on after a few minutes, glad to have the distraction from my splitting headache. The longer I sat in front of the TV, the more I remembered of last night. I recalled rounds of shots at the bar, Ross drunkenly singing something in front of a crowd, losing Matty’s wallet? No, because he said on the bus that he still had his wallet. Oh, _no_. My headache was forgotten for a brief moment as I had a vague feeling of where that conversation had gone after that.

“You want some toast?” Matty asked as he stepped out of his bedroom. He took one look at me before he frowned, and then began smiling. “Are you blushing?” He asked in a teasing tone.

“Uh, no.” I lied, shrinking back into the couch slightly.

“What’s up?” He asked as he walked over.

I stared at him on the couch next to me for a long moment, trying to estimate what his reaction would be - trying to remember what his reaction _was_. “What...” I cleared my throat, trying to gain some semblance of confidence around this conversation topic. “What did I say last night?”

“When?”

“On the bus.” I clarified.

“You went on some tangent about Game of Thrones, that you never finished.” Matty chuckled quietly to himself. “Told me off for smiling. Said you lost my wallet. Told me you loved me. Standard drunken stuff.” He answered.

I took in a deep breath, trying to steady my heartrate. “Yeah... I er, wasn’t lying when I said that.” I admitted.

He seemed to take a second to realise what I was referring to. “Yeah, of course, I love all you guys.” He shrugged casually.

Well, it was fucking now or never. “That isn’t what I meant.”

“You-” For once, his confident façade fell away and he looked genuinely taken aback by this news. “What?”

My face felt like it was turning beet red as I judged his expression. “I thought you knew?” I asked quietly. I hadn’t been overly secretive about my attraction to him, not that anything had transpired as a result.

“Well, _obviously_ it makes sense that you’re into me.” He laughed lightly, running a hand through his mohawk.

I suddenly found myself feeling defensive. “I’m being serious.”

“So am I, I’m a magnet for this sort of thing, you know.” He said with a smug look.

“You aren’t making this very easy, Matty.” I huffed, taking a sip from the glass of water next to me.

“What do you want me to say?” He asked. I stopped for a moment after that to think. What _did_ I want him to say? I more so just wanted to get my own feelings out in the open, but now that he was fully aware of them, the ball was in his court. It was unexpectedly incredibly intimidating feeling like I had no power over this situation. I supposed I just wanted to know where his head was at.

“What’s, uh… your opinion? On all this?” I settled on.

“It’s pretty flattering.” He said with a shrug.

“That’s it?” I asked, hoping to get more of a response than that.

“Well, we’re mates.” He answered.

“And that’s all?” I prodded. I wanted a deeper response, some kind of genuine feeling from the man in front of me. Not half-hearted quick-fire responses.

“I’ve not really ever thought about it.” He admitted.

“Would you?”

“I’d gladly let you occupy my thoughts.” He winked.

Something in my brain just snapped at that, and I quickly realised I didn’t want to be here anymore. “I feel like… maybe we should get some distance.” I said softly, standing up from the couch. My head spun slightly, but the hangover was easing.

“What?” Matty asked in surprise, scrambling to his feet.

“I just-” I started, sighing as I tried to organise my racing thoughts. “Maybe we need some time apart.” I suggested again.

“Why?” He asked with a confused frown.

“Clearly you don’t want to take this seriously.” I answered, feeling a pang of hurt as the words came from my mouth. I tried to ignore it as I gathered my stuff.

“Well, hang on-” He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. “Are you feeling alright? Are you okay to get home?” He rattled off.

“I’ll take a taxi.” I said dismissively as I checked my pockets.

“I can drive you.” He offered, quickly grabbing his keys, but I’d already made it to his front door.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

**The end**

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**Or**

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	3. The Tension’s Overflowing P2 - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! If it wasn’t obvious, that wasn’t the end. :P Both @tooshhhy and @imagine-that-100 on tumblr sent me the same context of “ I’m drunk on public transport and you’re high and we both keep looking at each other knowingly” and the more I thought about it, the more I was like “Hm. I can make these link up.” which was why it was taken a ‘smidge in my own direction’ lol. So, here’s the second prompt from my fantastic prompt list.

It hadn’t been a great idea to down that last drink before I left the bar. I didn’t feel nauseous (thankfully), but I sure as shit felt lightheaded. My co-workers had wanted to go out after work for a drink, since a bunch of us had the day off tomorrow. Which was nice, until it got late and they wanted to bail and head home for the night. I wasn’t going to waste half a pint that I’d paid for. That’s ridiculous. However, we’d been out since we knocked off, and it was nearly one in the morning now. That was a decent while to have been drinking. I probably should’ve allowed myself to waste that money and leave the half-drunk pint on the table. Because now, sat on the tube on the way home, having the carriage spin slightly every time I moved my head wasn’t an ideal situation. At least I could be grateful that it was fairly empty and I could wallow in my thoughts in peace and quiet. But that peace was short lived.

I was snapped out of my drunken haze when a man got on at the next stop and sat across from me. His unruly curls were a fucking mess, his leather jacket looked well worn, and the sunglasses sitting on the bridge of his nose just came across as obnoxious. But that… that looked like Matty. His hair was different, and he didn’t usually have stubble adorning his chin like that, but I was about 98% sure that was Matty. He must’ve been high, or drunk, or something, there was no other reason that he’d be wearing such dark shades at this hour. Which was annoying because it meant that I couldn’t tell if he was looking at me or not. If he’d even recognised me or not. I hadn’t seen him in years. Despite that it was me who had suggested the distance between us, it had been him who ultimately enforced it. As tour took off and the full-length album came out, he was suddenly incredibly unavailable – even if I _had_ wanted to hang out. Time differences and busy schedules meant that we lost touch, and things just… fizzled out. Ross was the only member of the band that I still kind of kept in contact with these days. I had all but forgotten about that drunken night where I passed out at his place. But now, being faced with the man in question, everything was being dredged up again. This was the absolute _last_ place I wanted to be. As I sat there over analysing this development in my Wednesday night and progressively sobering up the more that I realised the situation, I was suddenly even more mortified when he got up and crossed the carriage.

I shrank back in my seat as he sat next to me. “Hey.” He said quietly, without looking at me.

“Hi.” I mumbled back.

“Been keeping well?” He asked.

I just nodded, letting the silence linger for a second before deciding it was _probably_ polite to ask him as well. After all, we were stuck here together and it was likely he wasn’t going to go away, if the things I knew about him still rung true. “You?”

“Pretty good, y’know, touring and stuff.” He said with a dry chuckle. “Things are pretty different these days.” He added with a shrug.

“I can imagine.” I agreed. This conversation made the whole damn train carriage feel stifling. Why would Matty have thought that this was going to be anything other than awkward when he came over here? He should’ve just left it. Should’ve just continued in awkward silence and left without saying a word. That would’ve been much easier on my brain. That would’ve been a million times-

“I’m sorry.”

I stared at him in bewilderment as I tried to process those words. “What?” I asked, watching as he took his shades off and rubbed at his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered again. “For being a cocky prick when I was younger.”

He was apologising...? If I wasn’t fucking thrown for a loop by just _seeing_ Matty after so long, having this conversation right now while half-cut was just making my brain reel. “Are you saying you’re _not_ a cocky prick now?” I asked, again taking in the sunglasses, jacket, the overall _look_.

“No, I am.” He laughed with a nod. “I’m just more self-aware about it now.” And just like that, the awkward atmosphere broke away. I couldn’t help but laugh, which just made him laugh more. It all but echoed down the mostly empty train as I was reminded of hundreds of good times I had pushed to the back of my mind. When our laughter finally subsided, he nudged me with his shoulder. “I’ve missed the shit out of you, love.” I could smell the wine on his breath as he said that. He was a lot more drunk than what he was letting on.

I sighed deeply, feeling like I might regret my next words but being unable to stop myself saying them anyway, “I missed you too, Matty.”

We caught up for a bit, mostly about the band and his life, as mine was nowhere near as interesting in comparison. The more we chatted, the more it suddenly felt like a slot of my life had clicked back into place. As the stops passed by outside the window, I realised I was now fairly close to where I needed to get off.

“Where are you even going?” I asked as I turned back to Matty. Last time I had been to his place, he lived nowhere near here - but that was years ago now.

“I, erm…” He stared out the window for a moment, squinting thoughtfully. “I don’t know.” He shrugged.

“How can you not know?” I asked with a loud laugh.

“Where are _you_ going?” He shot back.

I frowned at him for dodging the question, but answered anyway, “Home.”

“Then that’s where I’m going.” He grinned.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise as I shook my head, “No way.”

“Yes way.” He argued.

“I’ve not seen you in years and you want to come to my place?” I asked in shock, my words coming out quicker than I expected. “Where are you living these days?” I tried to press him, hoping he would at least give me a rough idea of where to relocate him. He just made the motion of zipping his mouth shut. “Come _on_ , Matty.” I huffed with a roll of my eyes.

“I just won’t tell you where I live and then you have to take me back to yours.” He said defiantly as he crossed his arms, looking awfully proud of himself.

“I’ll get it off your licence.”

“What makes you think that I have it on me?” He asked confidently. “You gonna frisk me for it?” He smirked.

I just stared at him in disbelief, “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you love me.” He retaliated with a wink.

I felt an uncomfortable flutter in my chest as he said that, but was still too drunk to process it properly. “Yeah, don’t remind me.” I mumbled.

“Why not?” He asked, looking curious.

“Just stop talking or I will put you in a taxi and leave you there.” I threatened as I tried my best to look serious, but I had a feeling by the expression on Matty’s face that I had failed.

“I will never stop talking!” He boomed loudly. I was incredibly grateful that there was nobody else here for me to feel embarrassed in front of. “At least until I am sober enough to regret this tomorrow morning.” He added before standing up, wobbling slightly on his feet before grabbing a rail to steady himself. “Come on. This is your stop, yeah?”

After quite a large amount of effort, I was able to escort the (as it so turned out) _very_ drunk Matty to my front door. “Matty, you need to support some of your own weight.” I groaned as he leaned himself onto my shoulder. I wasn’t used to his hair being so wild and curly like this, it kept getting everywhere any time his head was near mine. He pushed himself away from me, steadying himself before taking a few steps. I watched as he went to walk up to my front door and instantly realised a potential issue. “Watch the steps.” I said, but he didn’t seem to register it. “The steps Matty, the _steps-_ ” I scrambled to stop him from breaking his nose on the pavement as he absolutely did not see the steps, proceeding to trip over them and plummet face first into the pavement. Thankfully, I was able to catch him just before the impact. He just laughed. “Fuck sake. Is this what it was like when you were trying to get me home?” I huffed as I managed to get him up all four steps and tried to find my keys.

“No, I just carried you.” He slurred drunkenly into my shoulder.

“What..?” I frowned to myself. That didn’t ring any bells and I thought I would’ve remembered something like that.

“I just carried you.” He repeated.

“No, I heard you. Why?” I corrected.

“You fell asleep on the bus and I didn’t wanna wake you up, so I mostly just carried you back.” He explained as I pushed the door open. The thought of that was a lot more endearing than I expected it to be.

Matty instantly hauled himself off my shoulder and stepped inside as soon as he could.

“I like what you’ve done with the place.” He commented as he walked into the kitchen.

“I’ve accumulated a lot of shit since you were here last.” I agreed. He poured himself a glass of water and continued snooping around. I watched as he poked through my bookshelf, moved his way onto my records, and eventually stopped in front of the TV cabinet as he crouched down to examine the DVDs at the bottom. It was surreal to see Matty in my flat again. I didn’t expect in a million years that this was likely to happen. “So, you want me to get you a blanket or..?” I prompted, feeling keen to go to bed since it was now well past one in the morning.

“Aw, we’re not gonna hang out?” He pouted.

“Not at this hour, no.” I chuckled.

“But I want to.” He whined, pushing himself back onto my lounge room rug and staring at the ceiling.

“And _I_ want to sleep.” I argued.

“We’ve not hung out in years.” He continued, opting to ignore me.

“We can another day.” I assured him as I draped a blanket over the side of the couch.

He just groaned loudly, sitting in silence for a few moments as I watched his mild tantrum in amusement. “Fine.” He eventually sighed.

“Everything is still in the same spot if you need anything.” I said as he pulled himself up off the floor.

“And you?” He asked.

“What?” I frowned back, confused as to what he was getting at.

“Will be..?” He raised an eyebrow in question.

“In my room..?” I offered. He nodded to himself as I said that, looking pensive as his gaze flicked from my bedroom door back to the couch. I waited for him to say something else, but it looked like the gears in his head were turning as he tried to figure something out. “All right, well… Good night.” I said with a nod.

“See you in the morning, love.” I heard him call out in a sing-song voice after me. I was grateful to still be drunk enough to not overthink that upcoming situation too much.

* * *

Memories came flooding back as soon as I woke up the next morning. Right, there was a man presumably still asleep on my couch. A man that I used to have many, many feelings for. This was not how I expected to spend my day off. I was grateful that I hadn’t been too drunk this time to have patchy recollection – this time, I remembered everything that I had said. Whether Matty remembered everything that _he_ said… that was going to be another story. I hadn’t heard him throwing up throughout the night, so perhaps he had already bailed. It wouldn’t surprise me. Gradually, I got myself presentable and slowly made my way out into the lounge room. I heard Matty before I saw him, his loud snores emanating from the couch. Stepping quietly around it I took in the sight before me. Matty looked like a _mess_. His curly hair was all over the place, he had drooled onto the couch pillow he was lying on, he had one shoe still on while the other was near the coffee table, a leg half kicked over the back of the couch, it was truly something to behold. And thus, something I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture of and sending it to Ross before he had the chance to sort his hungover self. As I stood at the edge of the kitchen, texting Ross about where his friend had ended up, a particularly loud snort caught my attention. I looked up, seeing Matty frowning in his sleep and then sleeping beauty’s eyes snapped open. He quickly squinted as he took in the light in the room, before spotting me watching him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He groaned as he rolled over and pressed his face into the back of the couch.

“Why are _you_ on my couch?” I shot back as I slipped my phone into my pocket.

Matty paused for a moment at that, sitting up slightly as he looked down at the couch. “Why the fuck _am_ I on your couch..?” He questioned quietly. Looking up for a moment, he took in his surroundings. “Your place looks different.” He noted.

“You came back here last night because you refused to give me your own address.” I informed him. He just groaned again.

“Sorry.” He mumbled.

“It’s fine.” I chuckled, grabbing a new glass of water and trading it out for the half-drunk old one sitting by the foot of the couch.

“Why were you even on the tube last night?” I asked as I sat down in the recliner beside him.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as he sat up properly, “Uh… I was out with a mate, and that was where he had to go so I kind of just… got on? I guess?” He answered, sounding incredibly unsure of his explanation.

“You didn’t have a mate with you..?” I questioned, suddenly wondering if Matty had really been _that_ drunk to have imagined getting on a train with someone.

“No, no, he was on the other line.” He elaborated. “I just felt like I should get on too, I suppose.” He laughed drily. “Glad I did, in hindsight. Who knows where I would’ve ended up had I not bumped into you.”

“Probably passed out in that carriage, still slumped into that seat.” I smirked at him.

“Would’ve woken up cuddling with some homeless guy.” He grinned back, then instantly winced. “You got any coffee?” He asked quietly. “And maybe some paracetamol?”

“Yeah, give me a minute.”

Once he had a coffee in his hand and some painkillers in his stomach, Matty seemed a bit more ready to face the day. For how drunk he had appeared last night, I expected him to have been more hungover today, but he looked fairly well composed. I switched the TV on to offer some background noise as he drank his coffee, but as soon as there was any new stimulus in the room Matty found himself with a million thoughts to get out of his head about whatever was playing. It was good to know that some things never changed. The more we spoke, the easier it was to fall into familiar habits of hanging out in each other’s company. He had gotten up just before eleven, but now it was fast approaching five, and I hadn’t heard him mention anything about going home.

“How you feeling?” I asked as Matty came back from the bathroom.

“Huh?” It looked like he took a second to comprehend what I meant. “Oh, fine.” He shrugged.

“Not hungover?” I frowned.

“Nah, been okay since the coffee.” He said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he flopped back onto the couch next to me.

“Then… why are you still hanging around?” I asked in confusion. It didn’t seem to make sense if he was feeling well enough to go home that he was still sat in my lounge.

“Because I want to hang out with my friend.” He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You said we could another today - today is another day.” He added as he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me into his side.

That took me aback for a second, both for the sudden intimacy and because that meant that he remembered the small details of what was said last night. I had dismissed his apology for the most part, given how drunk he seemed then. But maybe there was more to it than drunken ramblings. “Yeah… I did…” I said apprehensively, unsure if I wanted to start the line of questioning that was on the tip of my tongue. “You remember everything you said on the train?”

“Yeah. Of course.” He nodded.

“You say that but you seemed pretty drunk. I wouldn’t have expected you to remember much.” I argued.

“I remember important things, even when wasted.” Matty countered with a pointed look.

“Important?” I questioned immediately.

“Getting to see you after so long and finally apologise, that was pretty important to me.” He elaborated as he ran a hand through his curls.

“It was?”

“Of course, it was!” He said instantly. The tone of his voice almost sounded offended that I’d even ask. “I also remember nearly giving myself a concussion. Thanks for stopping that.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, uh, it’s no problem.” I mumbled. What he was saying was just raising more questions than providing answers. “So, you meant everything you said then? About missing me?” I continued.

“Sure did.”

“You miss me?” I felt like my thoughts were just spiralling deeper and deeper for each thing that he said. I hadn’t properly allowed myself to think about Matty in years, but now it was just all flooding back. I _had_ missed him, a lot more than I let myself realise.

He let out a deep sigh as he moved away slightly, turning on the couch to face me. “I can see myself falling into old habits if we continue like this, so let me explain. I didn’t mean to come across like I did when you admitted your feelings. I was an idiot, you caught me off guard, I didn’t know what to say so I just defaulted to what was easy to say. I genuinely _hadn’t_ ever thought about it, it hadn’t crossed my mind that you thought of me that way. You asked for space, so I wanted to give that to you. Then I just… got pulled away from it all. But in hindsight I should’ve made more of an effort to stay in touch and make sure we were on the same page. Because the more I was away from you, the more I realised I missed you a lot more than I expected myself to. Turned out I probably did return your feelings. That hit me pretty hard last night when I saw you. It took me a few minutes to work up the courage to come over and say sorry, because you had every right to tell me to fuck off.”

Matty watched me intently, clearly awaiting my reaction, but this was just all too much to take in at once. This made things back then, now seem very different. This made things _last night_ , now seem very different. “You… you were into me?” I finally spluttered in bewilderment.

“Stop questioning everything I say.” He laughed. “I don’t say shit I don’t mean.” I made a thoughtful noise as I tried to make sense of this. If he was into me then, did that mean he was still into me now? Is that why he was so hellbent on spending time together last night? Everything I had pushed under the metaphorical rug in my brain was now quickly ripped back out and cluttering up my mind floorspace. “Do you have an opinion on any of this?” He prompted.

I stared at him for what felt like a solid minute before one thought finally floated to the top of the pile of junk. “I really, really want to kiss you right now.”

He looked surprised for a second, his gaze flicking to the space on the couch between us before he looked back up at me with a devious look. “Then maybe you should.”

Don’t overthink it. Don’t overthink it. _Don’t overthink it_. I pushed myself forward on the couch, grabbing a fistful of his jacket and pressing my lips to Matty’s in such urgency that I nearly missed. My brain stopped after that, unable to remember what I was meant to do in this situation other than make the initial move. I had had enough willpower to kiss him, but didn’t have enough to take the lead. Thankfully, Matty was willing to take the initiative for me. As soon as his hand found my waist, as soon as he kissed me back, the feeling of excitement at the reciprocation shot right through me. I brought my hand up to sit in curls at the base of his neck as the overly rushed kiss started to find its pace. This moment had played on my mind for years. How this would feel, how it would play out, if Matty would be a good kisser. It turned out that I couldn’t have predicted how unbelievable it would feel to kiss him, no matter how hard I tried. My stomach twisted as he deepened the kiss, suddenly feeling far too many years of pining getting expressed all at once. It was odd feeling his stubble brush against my chin, that hadn’t been something I had accounted for all the times I had imagined this. His hand brushed against the small of my back, leaving my skin feeling like it was practically tingling where he touched. I let out a jagged breath, trying to piece my shattered mind back together for a second.

“Fuck me.” I breathed in exasperation, moving back slightly from him.

“Really?” Matty asked a little too eagerly as he planted a kiss on my neck. 

“No, Matty.” I laughed, trying to keep my voice steady despite his teasing. “I just… this is… ridiculous.” I muttered.

“In a good way?” He asked in a voice that sent a shiver down my spine.

“In a _very_ good way.” I answered bluntly. “I just can’t believe I waited, what? Three years? To do this.” I explained.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of time to make up for what we lost.”


	4. If You Don't Shoot, Then You'll Never Know - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next prompt from the prompt list! Thanks @jagz72 on tumblr for the request :D

__

_Why_ did it have to start raining right now? As if this day couldn’t have gotten any fucking worse. I finally had a job interview lined up after months of struggling to land one. But then my nice pants got a tear in them when they snagged on a loose nail on my dresser. At least I had a pair of backup pants, that were not as nice but they would do the trick. After that I burnt my toast in the toaster. Annoying, but a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. Then! My car broke down and wouldn’t start. Thankfully, I had realised it soon enough to have been able to sort something out in regards to getting to the interview on time. However, as I was walking to the bus stop the sky decided to open up and begin this sudden downpour. Life was just telling me not to go to this interview. I had quickly ducked into a nearby alcove on the side of the street to try and escape the rain, hoping that I could salvage these clothes without having to go home and change. I didn’t even know what I would change into if I had to do that, this was my last decent job interview outfit. As I was standing there cursing my terrible luck, I heard someone clear their throat, making me jump. I spun around, surprised to see a man standing in the doorway of the house I had apparently jumped in front of. He had a set of dark brown curls on his head, shaved back into a haphazard mohawk, equally dark brown eyes and he looked like he was maybe in his late twenties, early thirties? But most notably he looked like he had just woken up, judging by the rumpled-up jumper and sweat pants he was wearing, and the state of his bed hair.

“Erm, can I… help you with anything?” He asked, his brows knitting together in a concerned frown.

“Oh! Uh, not really, I think.” I quickly dismissed with a sheepish smile. “Just trying to get out of the rain so I can stay dry for this job interview.” I explained.

“You’re welcome to come inside?” He offered, holding the door open further.

“Ah, I’m all right.” I shook my head as a gust of wind spat a bunch of the rain into my face.

“At the very least just step inside to stay dry until this passes.” He said with a sincere expression. I looked at him for a moment, before deciding it was dumb of me to stand in this weather if someone was offering shelter.

“Yeah, okay.” I nodded, shivering slightly. “Thanks.”

I stepped inside, taking in the very concrete hallway in front of me. It felt almost as cold in here as what it did outside but at least it was dry.

“I’m Matty, by the way.” He said as he stuck his hand out. I told him my name as I shook it, “You want a cup of tea?” He asked, walking off into one of the rooms.

I glanced out the doorway, seeing the rain still pelting down outside and decided to shut it, “I probably won’t be here very long, I’ve got a bus to try and catch.” I called out.

“Well, I hate to break it to you but you’re probably not gonna make it.” He chuckled.

“But I’ve gotta make it…” I mumbled to myself.

“This weather isn’t meant to let up for a few hours.” He said as I wandered in the direction that he had headed in. The hallway opened up into a large living area with a sizeable kitchen. “Where are you headed?” He asked as he looked up at me.

“I’m trying to get to a job interview. This is the first one I’ve been able to get in weeks.” I explained. He nodded in understanding, handing me the cup of tea I hadn’t asked for, but gratefully took anyway.

There was a brief moment of silence as I awkwardly stood in this stranger’s kitchen. The sounds of us drinking our tea were all that filled the room for a while as I contemplated if I was about to get murdered. He seemed to be internally debating something.

“Let me give you a ride to this job interview.” He finally said, after taking a sip from his mug.

“No, no, no. You don’t have to do that.” I instantly declined.

“How far is it?”

“Maybe, um, fifteen minutes?” I estimated.

“Then let’s go.” He said as he stepped away from the kitchen counter.

“No, I can’t let you do-”

“It’s fine, seriously.” He interrupted. I eventually conceded, deciding I should take my change in luck for what it was worth, otherwise I wasn’t going to make it to this interview anyway.

We clambered into his car and he quickly punched into his phone where I had to go, and it turned out that it was only ten minutes away. I was going to be early. What a relief. I finally had a moment to decompress and take in the events of this morning. And _what_ a fucking morning. Then all of a sudden, this guy just swooped in and saved the day. An incredibly attractive guy, now that I thought about it. Which was a thought I wish I hadn’t had, because as soon as it was in my brain, it was impossible to get it out. I was currently stuck in a car with a dude who was probably _way_ out of my league but yet had for whatever reason, kindly enough had let me into his house, given me a cup of tea, offered to take me to this interview… This was surreal to say the least. I saw out of the corner of my eye as he looked across at me, and I tried very hard to not look back in case he saw me freaking out, but it was too late.

“Are you blushing?” He asked, sounding amused.

“Uh, kind of.” I admitted nervously.

“Why?” He laughed.

“Well, for a start, this is incredibly embarrassing.” I answered, now looking over at him as he glanced back to the road.

“For a start?” He prompted.

“Also because you’re cute.” I muttered under my breath as I stared back out my window, but not before I saw the corny grin spread across his face.

“You reckon?” He mused. I just stayed silent. This was a line of questioning my brain wasn’t ready to deal with right now. Thankfully, he dropped it and continued the rest of the drive with just the radio offering background noise.

“This the place?” He asked as we pulled up.

“Yep.” I nodded eagerly, already unbuckling my seatbelt. “Thank you so much, uh…” I paused for a moment, realising I had forgotten his name.

“Matty.” He reminded me with a smirk as he fumbled around in the centre console.

“Matty.” I repeated. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problem. Hope you get the job.” He said as I went to jump out of the car. Before I could, I felt his hand land on my shoulder. I stopped, turning back to see him holding out a small slip of paper with some numbers scrawled across it. “Here.” He offered, and I frowned back at him, waiting for him to explain. “For if you need any rides in the future.”

If I hadn’t been blushing before, I definitely was now. “Oh, um… Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I said as I took the paper and stared at it in bewilderment for a second.

“Or, you know, for a coffee.” He continued with a smile.

I just laughed, unable to fully take in the fact that this guy was asking me on a date right before my job interview, lest I fuck up the interview. But the offer was too good to turn down. “That sounds nicer than bumming lifts off you.”

“Look forward to it.” He grinned.


	5. Put My Heart Under Arrest - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by the ever lovely @red__moon from my prompt list over on tumblr~

“Ahhh, fuck…” I muttered to myself as I checked my pockets, realising that they did not contain my keys. I’d left them at that guys place, hadn’t I? That was going to be an awkward conversation later today, ‘ _Hey, sorry I bailed without saying anything this morning. Do you have my keys? No, don’t want a second date. Just my keys. Thanks, though._ ’ Ugh. Great. Now I’d just have to awkwardly stand outside my flat, slightly hungover, in the clothes that I wore yesterday, waiting for someone to hopefully rock up who had a key to the building. Standard Sunday morning, right? There wasn’t really a way to make this appear any nicer to those walking by than what it was, either. I sort of just had to eye the people ambling along the street, seeing if I recognised anyone from my building or hope that someone came out of the building who recognised _me_ and would let me in. But finally, I spotted someone. There was a guy coming my way with a familiar mop of curly hair. He lived in my building; I was certain of it. I was fairly sure he actually lived on my floor. He didn’t seem to be around a lot of the time, but I’d seen him around the place here and there as we were coming and going. He seemed nice enough from the brief exchanges we’d had, but we’d not ever really spoken more than the odd ‘hi’ in passing. I suppose now was going to be our first proper interaction. Judging by the state of the floral button-down shirt that he was wearing, his dishevelled hair, the five o’clock shadow, it looked like he was doing exactly what I was. I flashed him a friendly smile, trying my best to seem approachable.

He slipped his sunglasses off his nose as he walked up to me, tucking them into his shirt pocket. The way he was looking at me gave me the impression he was making the same conclusions about my morning as I had about his.

“Locked out?” He asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Uh, yes.” I confirmed sheepishly. “It’s Matthew, right?” I was fairly sure that was the name I had seen floating around. 

“That’s me.” He said with a nod.

“Can you let me in?” I asked hopefully.

He let out a sigh, but the look in his dark brown eyes seemed amused by this whole situation. “Sure.” He shrugged as he stepped around me and headed towards the door.

“So… Bad date?” He asked over his shoulder, fishing his keys out of his back pocket.

“What makes you think that?” I asked with a slight feeling of defensiveness. Was it really that obvious?

“Why else would you be sneaking home so early?” He laughed. “And wearing what you were wearing when I saw you last night.” He added as he pulled the door open for us.

“You saw me last night?” I asked in surprise.

“Saw you jumping into a taxi as I was leaving myself.” He answered. That made sense, I supposed. But I was none the less impressed he remembered such a brief moment when we hadn’t even spoken.

“There was… a lot of room for improvement.” I eventually offered, not wanting to discuss details. “You?”

“Mm, about the same.” He nodded, pressing the button for the lift.

As we stepped inside, I watched out of the corner of my eye while punching in my- our floor as he pulled a tiny bottle out of his pocket. It looked like one of those little bottles of liquor you get from a hotel minibar. “Is that vodka?” I frowned. He just grunted in response as he twisted the cap off and knocked back the bottle. The sight made my stomach turn. To drink straight vodka so early? I needed to be pretty drunk to be able to tolerate it at all, let alone at this hour. “Isn’t it only seven in the morning?” I asked in shock.

“Hair of the dog.” He explained as he shoved the empty bottle back into his pocket. “What was so bad about him?” He asked.

I groaned, trying to work out how to explain it without taking up half an hour of this guy’s time. “Uh, _well_ , it turned out his dog died yesterday. So, most of the date was spent with him crying.” I winced at the memory. “I felt bad for leaving him by himself when he was clearly in need of company. But we just didn’t click and he clearly needs time.” I explained.

“That was really nice of you.” Matthew said with a reassuring smile. “Hopefully the next one is better.” I felt like maybe I should ask what was so bad about his own date, but we didn’t really have the time in this short lift ride.

“I’ve been on more than enough mediocre dates to have had my fill.” He just chuckled quietly. “Starting to think I should take a break from the dating game.” I huffed.

There was a beat of silence as the lift came to a stop on our floor. “I don’t think you should give up so soon.” He eventually chimed in, rocking onto the balls of his feet as the door opened.

“Oh?”

“I’m sure I could take you on a good date.” He suggested nonchalantly.

“You’re sure, huh?” I questioned. The confidence behind the offer made it ten times more tempting.

“You’re just down the hall on the left, yeah?” He asked as he held his hand up to the lift door, holding it open for me to walk out.

“That’s me.” I confirmed.

“I’ll come grab you on Saturday at six.” He grinned.


	6. The Only Apparatus Required for Happiness is Your Pain - Adam Hann

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My very first time writing the lovely Adam. Request from @ghostlightqueen the prompt list on tumblr

This festival had been hot, humid and thus far, fairly dull. But I was holding my spot in the mosh for the set that I wanted to see. If I left now, I’d never get this close again. I wasn’t gonna waste the last three hours that I had spent waiting for PUP. When they came out, I felt that familiar wave of excitement wash over me. The show was starting. _It was starting_. Holy fuck. I’d been dying for the last four months for this moment. As they started the first song, I went to throw my hand up when I suddenly felt it collide with something. I spun around to see that I did not have as much space behind me as what I thought I did, and also a man holding his nose.

“Shit, did I just hit you?” I gasped, slowly feeling the pain settle into my hand as the shock subsided.

“Uh, I think so.” He mumbled. I noticed his hand starting to turn red.

“Is your nose broken??” I shouted over the music.

“Kind of feels like it, yep.” He nodded.

I glanced at the stage briefly, _really_ wanting to stay where I was - I hadn’t seen any of Morbid Stuff live yet. But my heart sank as I saw this guy wince in pain. “Fuck, let me help you.” I said as I grabbed his arm, trying to spot a clear path out of the mosh. It was a delicate balance to weave us through the crowd while at the same time trying to make sure this poor guy didn’t get hurt any further.

I pulled us out and over to a set of toilet blocks nearby, hoping to at least have a better view of his injury when not surrounded by people. Now that we were in a less cramped environment, it was easier to take in what this dude actually looked like. He had bleached blonde hair, stubble littering his chin, and his green eyes were currently boring into mine as he awaited my verdict. He was pretty cute, minus the blood pouring out of his nose. I gently took his hand away, seeing that his nose has a definite bend in it.

“Is it bad?” He asked with an apprehensive expression.

“Yeah, I…” I started, pausing for a minute as I tried to evaluate the situation. “I don’t think your nose is meant to look like that.” I said, unable to stop myself from reaching out to touch it. He hissed in pain as soon as I did, and I pulled my hand back. “How the fuck are you still alive?” I mused to myself.

“It’s a special talent of mine.” He deadpanned as he went back to trying to hold his nose together.

“Here, let me-” I ran off for a second, ducking into one of the vacant stalls to grab a wad of toilet paper. “Use this, at least.” I said as I held it out to him. He gave a grateful nod as he started trying to wipe the blood off of himself.

It was a pretty gruelling few minutes as I watched this man try to clean himself up with single ply toilet paper. I stared for a little bit before I finally felt the need to step in, because obviously I wasn’t going back to the show at this point. “Should we get you to a first aid tent or something?” I asked, watching as he shoved some toilet paper up his nostrils.

“Um… probably.” He agreed.

“God, I’m so sorry for this.” I said, running a hand down my face in exasperation. “Definitely not an ideal way to be meeting someone.”

“I’m Adam, by the way.” He said as he went to offer out his hand for me to shake, before seeing it covered in half-dried blood and retracting it. I told him my name offhandedly, still rather focused on the way the toilet paper shoved up his nose was gradually turning red.

“Come on, let’s go.” I said as I grabbed his hand anyway and started trying to find the specific white tent I was after.

As soon as I spotted the first aid sign, I picked up the pace. The amount of blood this guy was currently losing _probably_ wasn’t ideal. The paramedic sat in the tent saw us from a few metres away, and once she saw the state of him, she quickly stood up and walked over to one side of the tent. When we walked in, she already had an ice pack in hand, ready to go. 

“Got a broken nose over here.” She called out over her shoulder as she began examining him. Another paramedic popped their head around the back of the tent before stepping over “His girlfriend brought him in.” The first paramedic said to the one who had just walked over.

“Uh, not girlfriend.” I corrected. “Only just met this dude.”

“Adam.” He reminded me.

The first paramedic shot me a curious glance, before continuing to tend to Adam’s broken nose. I could hear the muffled noises of the stage in the distance, still half wishing I had kept my spot. But I did feel pretty guilty for accidentally punching this guy- Adam, square in the face. Even if it was accidental. “You should be right with a splint, mate.” The second paramedic said as he wandered off to get some supplies.

“Do you need any pain relief?” The first chimed in.

“Yes, please.” He nodded eagerly.

I waited around as they gathered their equipment and gave him some pills to swallow, just kind of awkwardly lingering.

“You can go, you know.” Adam said quietly. I looked down at him sat on the makeshift hospital bed, staring at the ice pack he still had held against his nose. “But thank you for bringing me here.” He added with a grin. For someone who had just had their nose broken by me, he seemed to be in pretty high spirits.

“I feel responsible, though.” I groaned. “Again, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay, really.” He laughed.

“I must’ve ruined your day.” I added, not really able to take his comment to heart.

“I’ll live.” He shrugged.

“Is there any way I can make it up to you?” I asked with a concerned frown.

“I dunno.” He sighed, looking like he was thinking about it for a second. “Buy me a drink or something after this?” He suggested.

“I’m pretty sure I can manage that.” I smiled, feeling a little bit of the guilt alleviate.


	7. You Pick a Fight P1 - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next prompt, next prompt, next prompt! Requested by @imagine-that-100 on tumblr off the prompt liiiiiist :P

It was _sweltering_. This heat wave was borderline unbearable. But thank god George’s parents place had a pool. After them asking George to housesit for the weekend while they were away, we all promptly invited ourselves over to take advantage of the circumstances.

“I am _so_ keen to jump onto that giant flamingo thing.” I declared as I stepped outside.

“Oh, really?” Matty asked with interest, sitting up in his seat slightly.

I flipped my sunglasses down to try and deflect some of the glare off the white pavement. “Been dying to all day.” I confirmed.

He let out a low whistle, and I looked over to him to see a look of pure mischief on his face. “Well, you’d better hope I don’t beat you to it.”

“What? No!” I frowned.

“Yes.” He nodded as he stood up.

“You just want it because I want it!” I debated loudly.

“You have no evidence of that.” He chuckled as he walked around the edge of the pool and picked up the big pink floatie.

I watched in horror as Matty _stole_ my flamingo and jumped into the pool. He came back out of the water with his short curls all stuck to his forehead, smiling triumphantly at me as he clambered onto the floatie. It was a solid minute of me staring at him, trying to calculate my next move. I could feel the other guy’s eyes on me as they watched this unfold in amusement.

“Give me the fucking floatie.” I said through gritted teeth.

“Make me.” He shot back.

“You _fucker_.” I growled as I jumped into the water after him, trying to land on the floatie and pull it down with me to get him off of it. Unfortunately, I missed, which just made Matty laugh harder. I tried then to flip it from underneath, grabbing the side of it and pushing up. But still, he held his balance.

“You done yet?” He smirked down at me.

“I could literally strangle you right now and no one would stop me.” I said as I tried to think of another plan.

“Aw.” He cooed. “I like it when you’re romantic.”

In the end, I had no plan left other than just to try and fight it off of him. “Give it!” I shouted as I grabbed the edge of it and yanked as hard as I could.

“No!” He shouted back.

“Are you two not nearly thirty? You’re acting like children.” I heard Ross say with a loud laugh.

“I fucking had it first!” Matty argued.

“Yeah but I called it first!” I pushed the point as he slapped my hands off the flamingo.

“Would you two just stop it?” Adam sighed.

“But Matty’s being a dick!” I whined.

“Matty’s always a dick.” George pointed out.

“I wanted the floatie.”

“Just go get one of the others.” The drummer reasoned.

I let out a defeated groan, “Fine.” I grumbled, before turning to glare at Matty. “But this isn’t over.”


	8. Just You and I Tonight - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another prompt? Another prompt. Requested by one of the best fanfic writers the world has ever known @aphxsia on tumblr (or @red__moon here) off the prompt list~

“Matty, I need a hand.” I called out to my housemate as I rifled through my wardrobe.

“With what?” He shouted back. I heard his footsteps pad closer until his short curls popped up around my doorway.

“I have that date tonight, remember?” I answered.

“Ooooo.” He cooed with a smirk as he sat down on the end of my bed.

“Can you just shut up and help me?” I said, rolling my eyes at his tone.

“What exactly do you need help with?” He asked.

“You know what guys are into-”

“I know what _I_ ’m into.” He corrected.

“What am I meant to wear for this thing?” I sighed in exasperation. I’d spent the last half an hour trying to pick something decent and, in the end, decided to deflect the decision.

Matty nodded, looking like he was thinking about this for a second. “Where is he talking you?”

“I dunno, a restaurant.” I shrugged. In all honesty, I wasn’t overly excited about this date, which was probably why I was struggling to choose something to wear. But I felt bad saying no to this poor man when, for all intents and purposes, he ticked all the boxes of what I would usually look for. I just… wasn’t feeling it.

“A fancy restaurant?” He asked.

“I think so.” He actually hadn’t told me where exactly we were going, but he seemed the type to go somewhere extravagant.

“Maybe like a nice dress, then?” He suggested.

“That seems like too much for a first date.” I grimaced. “Especially considering I probably won’t see him again.” I added under my breath.

“A decent blouse, then..?” He said

“Hm. That’ll do, I guess.” I said with a nod, grabbing something off a hanger that I quite liked.

I ushered Matty out, quickly changing into the new outfit before stepping out into the main living area for his opinion. He looked up from his laptop as I walked in, giving me a once over before going back to whatever he was doing. “What’s the weather meant to be like tonight?” He questioned.

I frowned, unsure where he was going with this, “Pretty cold.” I said. “Why?”

“A jacket might be smart?” He recommended.

“Oh, yeah…” I muttered, glancing down at my short-sleeved blouse. “I don’t think I really have a jacket that goes with this, though...”

“I might.” He said instantly.

“You’d loan me one of your jackets?” I asked in surprise. Matty had a hell of a wardrobe these days - I was certain that many of the things on his hangers were worth more than my car.

“Yeah.” He said with a shrug. His nonchalance about giving out something that cost so much made me envy his pay cheque.

“Aren’t they all fancy and tailored?” I asked, already heading in the direction of his room.

He just chuckled lightly, “I’m sure you’ll pull it off. Don’t worry.” He called after me.

As expected, his wardrobe was thoroughly impressive. The amount of ridiculous looking Gucci and Saint Laurent outfits in here was crazy. It was actually rather daunting trying to make a decision about _what_ jacket to borrow, because the sheer amount of options was intimidating. After flicking through his hangers, I found a nice medium-length black jacket that would do the trick for keeping the cold out. It didn’t quite fit when buttoned up fully, but having just the bottom button done up looked pretty decent. I made my way back into the living room, waiting for Matty to look up from his laptop before gesturing to the suit jacket. He stared at it for a long moment, before meeting my gaze again. It looked like the gears inside his head were turning, but nothing was coming out of his mouth. Matty didn’t often have nothing to say. “What?” I asked. “Does it look shit?” I asked with a frown.

“No, like… It’s just…” He raked a hand through his curls as he let out a huff of air. “I can’t believe you’re actually wearing _my_ clothes.” He seemed pretty worked up over this. I suddenly felt like maybe I should’ve checked the tag. Had I grabbed something stupidly expensive?

“So, it looks good?” I asked apprehensively.

“It looks _insanely_ good.” He nodded with a disbelieving laugh.

“Oh. Great. Hopefully the date goes-”

“Don’t go out with that guy.” He interrupted, shaking his head as he stood up.

“Huh? Why?” I watched as he stood up and crossed the room to stand in front of me.

“You’re way too good for him.” He scoffed, reaching out to straighten the lapel of the jacket, resting a hand just below my shoulder as he did so.

“Am I just?” I asked in surprise, finding myself laughing slightly. “Who do you propose I date then?”

“Me.” He said simply.

His statement hung there for a second as I processed it. “What?” I could suddenly hear my heart rate hammering in my ears.

“Go on a date with me.” He rephrased. My stomach dropped when he asked the full question.

“ _What_?” How long had Matty been into me? Was this a recent thing or was it a thing when he suggested I move in? This brought up far too many questions.

“Please?” He asked hopefully. As I stared up at him, I couldn’t help but feel like I wanted to say yes to him - and not just to be polite. This, _this_ was the vibe that I had been missing with that other guy. This was why I hadn’t been keen for the date. I just hadn’t realised it was possible for me to get this feeling so close to home.

“You know what?” I started, trying to contain my grin. “Yeah.” I nodded as he broke out into an eager smile. “Grab a coat.”


	9. Turn Out the Light - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh? The last chapter of The Radio Station wasn’t soft enough for ya? Well, here, have some even more soft Matty. Requested by @ghostlightqueen on tumblr off the prompt list~

I could feel my headache pounding away behind my eyes as I stared at the screen in front of me. How long had I been working? Probably too long. _Definitely_ too long. But I just had to finish this last bit and then I could stop for a bit. I had to get on top of the backlog of stuff that had piled up. Had to feel back in control of my workload. But it was difficult trying to be efficient while feeling like my brain was melting. As I was trying to sort out my thoughts, I heard the door behind me open.

“You’re home early.” I muttered without turning around, knowing full well it would be Matty. Nobody else had a key to get in. I was surprised that I hadn’t heard him, though. He would’ve had to have brought bags in with him.

“You’re up late.” He shot back as his hand came to rest on my shoulder. It was a small gesture, but the instant feeling of comfort was incredibly relieving after such a stressful day.

However, I wasn’t about to let that sway me from finishing this, “Mm.”

“How long have you been working?” He asked, pushing past my unwillingness to interact with him.

“What’s the time?” I asked back.

There was a pause, I assume as he checked his phone, “Nearly midnight.”

“Uh,” I started at about ten, so that would make it, “about fourteen hours or so.” I shrugged.

There was a slight scraping noise, and I saw Matty out of the corner of my eye dragging over the chair from the side of the room. “You need to take a break.” He said, taking a seat next to me.

“I don’t need one.” I dismissed as I looked back at what I was in the middle of.

“Yes, you do.” He argued, placing an arm around my shoulders. I couldn’t help but subconsciously lean into it.

“Just let me-”

“You look like a fucking zombie.” He interrupted with a laugh.

I let out a deep sigh, pinching at the bridge of my nose to alleviate some of the pain rattling around my skull. “I’m fine, I swear.”

“Look, if anyone knows what overworked looks like, it’s me.” I finally took the chance to properly look at him; his normally light curls hanging limp around his forehead like he hadn’t washed his hair in far too long, the bags under his eyes, his dishevelled clothes, the lopsided smile – he was just as exhausted as I was.

Matty sat quietly for a few more moments as I tried to finish off the project I was on. But it was only about five minutes before he had to interject again. “Come on.” He pleaded, pulling me further into his side. The more I let myself ease into his warmth, the more I could feel how tired I truly was setting in.

“Matty…” I whined in reluctance.

“It’s way too late to be doing this.” He said in what I knew was his attempt at a convincing tone.

“I’m so close to done.” I reasoned.

“Just save it for now and come back to it tomorrow.” He said as he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “We both need rest.” I had to admit, he had a point. And now that I’d noticed how tired he looked, I just felt awful for keeping him up too. Damn him and his ability to guilt trip me so easily.

I groaned as I stood up from my desk chair, stretching slightly and feeling my back crack a few times.

“See, you’ve been sitting still for too long. That’s not good.” Matty reprimanded as he clicked his tongue.

I couldn’t help but snort at his hypocrisy, “Like you can talk, I see how often you crack your neck when you’ve been in the studio all day.” I said.

“You gotta get up and go for walks and stuff.” He continued to give me advice, acting like he hadn’t heard me remind him of his own bad habits.

“Oh, I see how it is. You just wanna dish out advice but not take it?” I chuckled.

“This is about you, not about me.” He said as he shook his head. “Got a headache?” He asked with a concerned frown.

“Maybe.” I muttered, opting to look away from him.

“Save all your stuff, turn that off, go to bed, I’ll grab you some paracetamol.”

Seeing him be so worried and considerate was endearing to say the least. Even though I was still stressed about getting all this work done, at least for the moment, I felt pretty calm and taken care of. By the time I had gotten ready and clambered into bed, Matty was just walking in, glass of water and painkillers in hand. I downed the pills, hoping they’d take effect quickly. I watched in my peripherals as he got himself sorted, switched the light off and climbed into bed- but I wasn’t really focusing on that, instead I was trying to work out when I needed to get up tomorrow. If I set my alarm for nine, then I should be up and ready in time to get back to work for ten. The sooner I smashed out this job that I was on then I could start the big-ticket item I’d been given this week-

“Stop.” He said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Stop thinking about work.” Matty laughed. “You’ve got that look on your face that you get in the middle of a project.” He said, running his hand up and down my back comfortingly.

“But-”

“Sort it out tomorrow. Sleep now.” He said, cutting himself off with a yawn.

I took one look at him, seeing how he was fighting to keep himself awake to make sure I actually went to sleep as well, as opposed to continuing to fret about work. “Fine.” I huffed. My annoyance was mostly superficial, because it melted away as soon as he pulled me closer to him.

He leaned forward slightly, kissing me gently, “Good night.” He said quietly.

“G’night.” I mumbled, already feeling the sleep that I’d been dying for taking over.


	10. You Pick a Fight P2 - Matty Healy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyy it’s prompt time. I have since forgotten what prompts @imagine-that-100 on tumblr gave me for from the prompt list this part two, but hopefully you enjoy it anyway. :P

And I was right, because it wasn’t over. The pool incident was just the start of much more bickering and fighting over nothing that was set to come during the months between Matty and I. We hadn’t known each other all that well prior to that day, but it definitely set the bar for future interactions. Being argumentative and stubborn was just a habit neither of us could break, much to all of our mutual friend’s annoyance. It might’ve been on the verge of immature, since we were both pushing thirty, but neither of us cared. And we never really meant it. Grudges about stolen floaties were not held for long. It was a rare occasion that we genuinely made up and said sorry, but typically by the end of the day we had either forgotten about it or played some prank on the other to feel avenged about our wrong doing. Over the course of many months of arguing and pranking, Matty and I inevitably became closer. Realistically, Matty was probably one of my best friends by this point in my life. We saw each other at least a couple of times a week for various reasons and I enjoyed his company (mostly). But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to constantly one-up him and make sure I destroy him any time he challenges me to anything. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You gotta know your opponent’s weaknesses to best exploit them.

However, tonight was our regularly scheduled movie night. So, more than likely no arguing would be occurring tonight. The movie had already been picked by democratic vote by the group, which meant there would be no debates about that. Everyone was bringing their own snacks, nothing to fight over. And we rotated who hosted, so no arguments there either. This week it was Matty’s turn. Last week when it had been at my flat, we had picked a comedy movie to watch and ended up receiving a noise complaint from my neighbour about us being “too rambunctious”. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have the same issue to deal with this week given Matty’s much thicker walls. I was cutting up a tray of brownies that I was graciously bringing to share - one of which may or may not have been spiked with cayenne pepper just to spite Matty for last week when he mixed my bag of skittles with m+m’s - while I replayed the events of last week. The details of the movie were actually a bit of a blur, because after the few drinks that I had downed after a rough day at work, I recalled falling asleep. When I woke up, I found myself snoring on Matty’s shoulder. God, that was utterly embarrassing. Other than my snoring, to wake up cosying up to _Matty_? I’d rather be caught dead. But I must have been too distracted by these memories, because as I was cutting, I slipped and managed to slice open my thumb with my new knife.

I felt the cut the instant it happened, bracing myself for what I might see before I looked down. Sure as shit, all I saw was a lot of red. The first thought to run through my head was that my brownie plan was ruined. I couldn’t serve brownies that had been doused in blood. The second was that I absolutely needed to seal this wound as soon as possible. I raced to the bathroom, grabbing a roll of gauze and wrapping it around my thumb as tightly as I could. Do I call an ambulance? No, this wasn’t an ambulance sort of emergency. Emergency, though. I should go to the emergency room. Now. But I had to let the guys know I wasn’t coming. I could see the gauze starting to turn red as I searched my phone for Matty’s contact. Fuck, I felt so bad for bailing on this movie night given it was our regular thing, but this was really not good. Really, really not good. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

“Hey-”

“Look, I need to go to emergency.” I interrupted in a garbled rush.

“ _What_?” He shouted down the line.

“I need to go to hospital, so I’m not gonna make it tonight.” I explained, slightly slower.

“What did you _do_?” He asked in an incredulous tone.

“I sliced my thumb open cutting brownies.” I just heard him laughing. “It’s not _funny_ , Matty. I need stitches.” I frowned as I started to grab my essentials. What if they wanted to keep me in overnight? Oh my god, I was absolutely not prepared for something like this. I should have a go bag. Is that a thing normal people did? Have a go bag in case they accidentally injure themselves? Maybe smart people did.

“Do you need me to drive you?” He offered as I was contemplating what exactly I would put in a go bag.

“What? Uh, no. I’m okay. I think.” I rattled off.

“I’ll meet you there.” I heard him say. He what? Why would he want to come to the hospital?

“Wait. No, you don’t-” But he’d already hung up.

Before I left the house, I slapped another few layers of bandage over the gauze on my thumb to try and put some pressure on this cut that was apparently bleeding like a tap by the rate it was turning things red. Driving to the hospital with a thumb as fat as mine was with all the bandages wrapped around it was not easy to say the least, but I managed to get there in one piece. Once I had gotten there, paid for my parking, and then managed to check myself into the ER, I was able to take a seat and decompress slightly. But, the peace and quiet didn’t last long, because not even five minutes after I sat down a familiar face entered through the sliding glass doors.

“Good job.” Matty said as he approached, with a slow clap for emphasis.

“Don’t patronise me.” I scoffed.

“Show me.” He said as he took a seat in the uncomfortable plastic chair next to my own.

“It’s okay-”

“Just show me what you did.” He dismissed.

“I mean, I can’t really take this stuff off-” I gestured to my half blood-soaked bandages, “-or it’ll bleed worse.”

He let out a low whistle as he raked a hand through his curls. “Bloody hell.” He muttered under his breath, before glancing up at me. “Pardon the pun.” He added with a smirk.

“Shut up. It’s really not as bad as it looks.” I lied. I was trying to play it down, to pretend like I hadn’t briefly seen how deep that knife went, but I knew that this was definitely very vital that I see a doctor very fucking soon.

He met my gaze, clearly seeing the stress I was trying to hide. “You’re not very convincing.” He chuckled.

Despite my protests about him wanting to wait with me, Matty continued to ramble on about what he had done earlier in the day while we sat in the crowded waiting room. He also told me not to worry about cancelling on the movie night, and thanked me for trying to make brownies. If only he had known what _his_ brownie was going to taste like. But at least he was distracting me from the weird sensation in my thumb. After about half an hour, I was called through to be seen by the nurse - which realistically just meant that I sat and waited in another room for a further ten minutes until I was finally seen by someone. When she walked in, she introduced herself and asked for a run down of the situation as she started gathering some supplies. After I had explained what I had done, she started moving towards my giant wad of bloody fabric.

“I’m gonna look away.” I warned the nurse, she just nodded in response. I felt her unravelling the bandages on my thumb, trying really hard to busy myself by studying the vision tester chart on the wall. She let out a quiet hum as she analysed the situation.

“All right. I am going to put some glue on this now to hold it, but we are going to need to anaesthetise you to properly sort this out. Is that okay?” She asked in a calm tone. They were going to knock me out? It was bad enough to need to be knocked out for?? Holy shit.

“Um, yep.” I nodded. “I suppose it’ll have to be.” I added with a nervous laugh. “When will that be?”

“As soon as they can get you in. Likely in the next few hours.” She answered.

When I came back out of the nurse’s station, I sat back down and told Matty what they had said.

“They need to _sedate_ you?” He asked in shock.

“I’ve apparently done quite a number on myself.” I could feel the stress building up as the realisation set in. Oh my god. I had cut off my thumb. I had cut off my thumb and now they needed to reattach it. Holy fuck. _Holy fuck_.

“Hey, calm down.” He reassured, placing his hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

“But what if it’s too late? What if I cut too far? What if-”

Thankfully, Matty interrupted my downward spiral of anxiety. “They would’ve told you if that were the case. They’re going to operate, so it must be fine.” He moved to take my good hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing mind as I nodded in agreement. At least one of us was the voice of reason right now. “When are you going in?” He questioned, seeming genuinely sympathetic.

“They said as soon as possible. I just have to wait here until a theatre frees up.” I replied. He just nodded thoughtfully. “You should go back to the movie night.” I said, eventually feeling guilty that he’d already been sat waiting here for an hour.

“No.” He shook his head as he rifled through his pocket. “You want some gum?” He asked, holding a packet out in my direction.

I looked down at them apprehensively. “They’re not some ridiculous flavour, are they?”

He laughed loudly. “No, I threw the wasabi ones out.”

It was another hour before I was finally called through to get ready for theatre. Now I was genuinely feeling pretty awful that Matty had been here this whole time. We had well and truly pushed past dinner time, he’d missed the movie, our friends were all sat at his place without him. He can’t have been having a good time stuck here with me.

“Okay, I gotta go in.” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll be here when you wake up.” He smiled up at me from his seat.

“Just go home, I’ll be fine.” I said as I gestured to the door.

“No.” He grinned.

“Go.”

“ _No_.” His dark brown eyes bore into mine, clearly challenging me to push him further on the subject.

“I hate you, so much.” I grumbled as I heard the nurse call my name again.

“I love you, too.” He said, blowing a kiss for emphasis as I walked off.

The doctors all reassured me that the operation was going to be quick and easy. Knock me out, stitch me up, wake me up fifteen minutes later. Easy peasy. I had never had any issues with operations, being knocked out was easy. It was the stuff you had to be awake for that was hard. True to their word, when I saw the clock when I started coming to, it had been no more than half an hour than when I last checked the time. But my _god_ I felt groggy. My brain felt like it had been replaced with a bunch of cotton balls and my eyelids might as well have been made of lead. I glanced down at my thumb, seeing a much smaller pile of bandages on there, that were now thankfully not soaked in blood. That was nice. I then caught sight of the man sat next to my bed.

“Hey, you’re up.” Matty said quietly as he stepped over. As soon as he leaned over the bed frame, the fluorescent lights above him just illuminated his dark, curly hair. Holy shit. It looked borderline angelic. “How’re you feeling?”

“Your hair…” I mumbled as I reached out my good hand to touch it.

He seemed surprised by my actions at first, before letting my run a hand through it. “What about it?” He asked with a quiet laugh.

“It’s really soft.” I answered, genuinely quite surprised by how nice it felt. “Has it always been that soft?” I felt like I had been missing out. I could’ve been touching this hair for nearly a year now and instead I had been swapping his shampoo for ranch dressing and perfume.

Matty seemed keen to indulge my anaesthesia haze, letting me bother him with all of my weird questions about his hair. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy. I did a lot of mean shit to him and here he was, sat with me in emergency all evening instead of hanging out with his friends. After the pranks I’d pulled, I likely didn’t deserve a friend like him. But he’d pulled them on me too. We were a pretty good pair, I suppose. And I had no idea if it was this lighting or what, but dare I say, Matty was looking pretty attractive today. Had I really just been so focused on butting heads with him that I never noticed these things before?

“Are you sure you really look this good? I feel like I must still be dreaming.” I said, pretending to shield my eyes.

He frowned, before the realisation dawned on him and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Are you _flirting_ with me?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Don’t use cheesy pickup lines on me.” He chuckled.

“How else am I meant to pick you up?” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

“Are you trying to?” He asked as a smile slowly made its way onto his face.

“Maaaaybe.” I said in an attempt to be non-committal, but then my curiosity got the better of me. “Is it working?”

“I’m gonna remind you of this when you’re properly out of the anaesthetic.” He just looked amused. Not the reaction I had hoped for. But I was too tired to keep trying to come up with clever lines.

“Okay.” I muttered, nodding softly. “Gon’ sleep now, though.” I added.

“Rest up.” He agreed. “You’re gonna need all the energy you can get to deal with me giving you shit for this tomorrow.” 


	11. Eyes Bright - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by the ever lovely @ghostlightqueen off the prompt list, and then turned totally self indulgent by me. Enjoy some Christmas Matty content.

“Matty?” I shouted out down the hall.

“What?” I heard my boyfriend call back.

“Where’s my hat?” I asked as I rifled through my dresser. I thought I put it in the top right drawer last year, but it wasn’t there now. Where the hell had it gone..?

“ _What_?” His voice called back.

“My Santa hat, where is it?” I clarified.

Matty’s steps gradually grew closer to our bedroom as he poked his head in through the door, examining what I was doing. “I dunno. Where did you put it last year?” He asked as he walked in, opening up the wardrobe.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking.” I pointed out.

“Do you really need it?” He questioned with a frown.

“ _Yes_ , I really need it.” I asked, aghast that he would even imply I could leave the house without it. “It’s a Christmas photo! Of course, I need my hat.” I scoffed with a roll of my eyes. The _audacity_.

“I admire your dedication to Christmas spirit.” He chuckled quietly as he continued to help me search.

After roughly fifteen minutes of looking, we were able to locate my hat. It turned out that it had fallen down the side of the dresser last year. But it was found, my Christmas sweater was on, and thus I was prepared for this photo. Matty wasn’t as keen to get into the Christmas chaos as I was, which was fine - I knew it was more my thing than it was his. At least he threw on a green beanie over his mohawk for the occasion. And realistically, he agreed to get the photo with me, so I could hardly complain. We’d had to book quite a bit in advance to get a time slot with the _good_ mall Santa for our shot. The difference being that good mall Santa’s had real beards. You have to be devoted to your craft to earn my hard-earned dollars. Thankfully, having a booking meant that we didn’t have to wait in line for ages like the people who showed up on a whim throughout the day. I’d been prattling on for the last while excitedly while we stood in line about various Christmas things while Matty indulged my ramblings.

When we were next up in line, the excitement truly set in. “I know it’s so irrational, I know Santa’s not real, but holy fuck every time I see a mall Santa a small part of me is still so damn delighted.” I said, feeling a bit starry eyed.

“That’s pretty adorable.” Matty smiled as he nudged me with his elbow playfully.

“Just the whole deal with Christmas, the lights, the food, Santa, seeing your friends and family, it’s all so great.” The more I spoke, the more I felt my energy building. I realised as I said it, that I didn’t recall turning on _our_ Christmas lights before we left the house this evening. “DUDE, did you-” I started, swinging my arm out to grab Matty’s shoulder while I kept my eyes trained on Mr Claus. But I felt it connect with something else instead. I paused for a moment, turning to my boyfriend to see him holding his cheek. “Shit, did I just hit you?” I gasped.

“Uh, yeah.” He laughed softly as he rubbed his cheek.

“Oh man, I’m so sorry.” I winced, pulling his hand away to examine the damage. There was a pretty decent scratch on his cheek from one of my nails.

“It’s fine-”

“No, it’s not! I properly got you!” I interrupted.

“Seriously, it’s fine.” He dismissed as he pulled his heavy coat tighter around his shoulders. “It could’ve been way worse. You could’ve given me a black eye or something.” He continued.

“Don’t even joke about that.” I said seriously. A part of me was instantly worried about ruining the photo we’d had booked for the last two weeks, but more so I just felt terrible for hurting him. “I’d feel even worse than I do now.” I added.

“Don’t feel bad. You’re worth every scratch.” He said with a sweet smile.

I stared at him for a solid minute, just taking in his choice of phrasing. “That was _so_ corny.” I eventually said, shaking my head in disbelief.

“But sweet?” He asked with a hopeful look.

“Yes.” I laughed with a nod as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side.

“Good.” He muttered as he kissed the top of my head. “Don’t want you to be sad before this photo you’ve been hanging for.”

By the time we had finished fussing over Matty’s injury, we were called up to the front by the photographer. My attention was instantly diverted to the jolly fellow in front of us as my excitement returned. I made sure to reign in my gesticulations though. We took our assigned seats, Matty of course letting me sit the closest to Santa.

“So, what do you kids want for Christmas?” The mall Santa asked, clearly keen to play into the scenario.

“A new guitar would be nice.” My boyfriend quickly suggested. Little did he know, one was already wrapped and stuffed in the back of the garage away from snooping eyes.

“Have you-” He looked past me to Matty, cutting himself off as he frowned, “Oh, uh, it looks like you’ve got a bit of a scratch there, young man.” He noted, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Yeah, the things you do for love, huh?” He grinned.

“Okay, now you’re being _too_ corny.” I said, but still felt warmed by the sentiment none the less. 

“All right, look at the camera!” The photographer called out, waving her hand to catch our attention. To be honest, after all the fuss, the five minutes it took to get the actual photo was mildly underwhelming. But I got my free candy cane, and walked away with the printed photo in hand that I had full intention of sticking in a frame on the wall. It was a pretty cute photo, after all.

“Thanks, Matty.” I said as I finally tore my eyes away from the picture to look up at him.

“Merry Christmas.” He said, before leaning down to kiss me.


	12. You Pick a Fight P3 - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have long since forgotten what prompts from the prompt list that we used for this, but as requested by @imagine-that-100 on tumblr, the third and final part of You Pick a Fight. Enjoy!

True to his word, Matty absolutely did give me hell for everything I had said and done while in hospital. Word spread pretty fast in our circle of friends about how soft I had remarked his hair was, much to my dismay. But my thumb survived, and that was the main concern. I could tolerate the berating for the sake of still having all of my digits. And to be fair, Matty _was_ very helpful in hospital that day, as much as he didn’t tell anyone else about that half of the story. A part of my anaesthesia haze ramblings stayed with me even past that hectic evening. I suddenly felt like I gave that man too much grief throughout our friendship, maybe a few of my pranks were edging on too mean. Not that I was going to give up entirely on that side of our friendship, but I definitely had a feeling that it was time to pull back from how intense they had been becoming. When every interaction between us wasn’t laced with sarcasm and spent looking over your shoulder for what could be coming next, spending time with Matty was actually… fairly pleasant? I found myself actually wanting to be around him.

“Mattyyyy.” I spoke into my phone as I propped it up between my shoulder and my ear.

“Yes?” His voice crackled back down the line.

“I need to ask you a favour.” I started. At this point, Matty was no stranger to my random phone calls for help. I mean, come on, he was rolling in it and had connections everywhere, I wasn’t just going to let that go to waste.

“Mm?”

“My high school reunion is coming up…” I stared at the invitation stuck to my fridge.

“And?” He prompted.

“And it would feel extremely vindicating to have a nice date to rub in everyone’s faces.” I finally suggested. Making this call wasn’t easy, I didn’t like the connotations that came with asking this. _But_ , I did _really_ like the connotations that came with rocking up with Matthew Healy in tow. And if I _had_ to go, I wanted to have some fun with it.

There was a pause, and I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me at first. “Ooo, I’m not sure.” He eventually said, sounding like he was thinking on it. “But I can see why you’d ask.” He added.

“What?” I frowned in confusion, not that he could see my expression anyway.

“I mean, why wouldn’t you want to be seen with someone as drop dead gorgeous as me?” He said. I gave a snort of laughter in response, but he didn’t continue any further.

I let out a deep sigh, then said the thing I knew would get him to go, “There’s an open bar.”

“I’ll be there.” He replied instantly.

“Great. Thanks.” I nodded.

“My pleasure.” I could just see his shit eating grin through the phone. Hopefully this idea didn’t backfire on me.

* * *

After a few weeks, the fateful evening rolled around. As promised, Matty drove round to my place, dressed very smartly in a nice button down. Which, after the crocs getup I’d seen him in literally the day prior, this was a vast improvement. But I couldn’t help but notice the bags under his eyes, and the way his eyelids drooped.

“Are… are you feeling okay?” I asked apprehensively as I let him in.

“Huh?” He seemed pretty out of it.

“How long has it been since you’ve sleep?” I asked with a short laugh.

“A week?” He answered, seeming entirely serious about his answer.

“Jesus, Matty. Why? What’s keeping you up?” I asked in concern, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Erm… Album stuff, you know.” He shrugged nonchalantly.

“Are you sure you’re good to go to this thing?” He looked in no state to be on a night out. But as soon as I questioned his ability to attend, he perked up.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He nodded quickly, running a hand through his messy curls. As much as he’d dressed up, it seemed that there was no controlling that hair of his. “C’mon, let’s go.” He said as he gestured back to the door.

We ordered an Uber, neither of us wanting to commit to being the designated driver and passing up on the free booze. Once we had clambered inside, I laid down a few ground rules about what to tell people if they asked. All the stuff about how we met, why we got together, the things that we had to make sure to agree on to get our story straight and seem believable.

“All right, so I’d appreciate if you tried to be a bit more tactful than usual.” I ended my spiel, giving him a serious look.

“Be as embarrassing as possible, got it.” He said with a firm nod.

“Can you please just listen to me for once?” I said as I rolled my eyes.

“Or-” He said, pointing a finger at me for emphasis, “I could _not_ listen to you, and we could pull many fantastic pranks at this stuffy party.” He suggested.

I thought on this for a moment. “What did you have in mind?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.

“We can raise hell together - spike the punch, spread rumours, heckle the speeches, that sort of thing.” He elaborated with a devious smile.

The offer was tempting, but then I remembered that I was meant to be making a good impression. “No, no. I just… would rather be quietly impressive instead of causing a scene like we usually do.” I said, tearing my gaze away from him and looking back out the window.

“Whatever you say.”

When we rocked up at my old high school, it probably shouldn’t have surprised me that everything looked exactly the same as what it did when I was a student. The buildings were a slight bit more run down, the signs were starting to wear away, it was nostalgic in a very uncomfortable way. We followed the small arrows staked in the ground, making our way through the school to where the reunion was being held. As we approached the doors, Matty stopped me, looping his arm with mine with a smile before walking in. The gesture instantly reminded me of why I had been worried about asking him to come as my faux date. Other than him getting the wrong idea, I didn’t want to dredge up any repressed feelings since that day in the hospital a few months ago. This thought was quickly squashed once we stepped into the room and had the tacky decorations shoved right into our faces. I had no idea what theme they were trying to achieve, but if it was ‘awkward high school disco’ they had successfully done it. However, I was pretty chuffed with the stares that we were getting as we walked through the room. By the look of the whispers that I saw being passed around, clearly Matty was recognised. Most of the people I had spotted I didn’t overly want to talk to, so I was glad to have brought a plus one that I could hang out with to avoid stifled pleasantries with people I’d not seen in over a decade.

“Why is there a deer in the room?” Matty whispered in my ear as he gestured to the large buck that was sectioned off in the corner.

“School mascot.” I answered.

“What?” He asked with a frown.

“The football team, they’re called the bucks or something.” I explained, pointing out a banner on the wall with the cartoon version of the animal.

“So… they have a deer? A real live deer?” He continued with an incredulous laugh.

“Yep.” I nodded.

“Let’s go tie shit on its antlers.” He said eagerly, attempting to drag me towards the animal.

“ _No_.” I quickly hissed, pulling him back towards the bar. “Let’s go get a drink.” I offered instead.

With a drink in hand, Matty was much easier to keep under control. We drifted around to a few conversations, dropping stories of accomplishments and various other brag worthy things. After about half an hour, though, he started to get restless.

“Hey, where’s the woodshop?” He asked quietly as his eyes darted around the room.

“Why do you want to know?” I asked back, narrowing my eyes in suspicion.

“No reason.” He said with a shrug. “What about the art room?” He questioned with a smile playing on his lips.

“What are you scheming?” I accused.

“Nothing!” He threw his hands up in defence. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom and then get another drink. You want one?” He asked.

I stared at him for a moment, trying to work out what idea was turning over in that head of his. “Sure.” I conceded, watching as he strolled off.

I was apprehensive about letting him wander off alone, what with his track record. But I had no reason to stop him. Once left to my own devices, I had to begrudgingly start conversations with my old classmates alone. I didn’t realise how much I missed having Matty to bounce off of in conversation until he wasn’t there. The time ticked by, and he still hadn’t returned. When I finally felt the need to go looking for Matty in case he got lost, I spotted him on the other side of the room sparking up conversation with a group of people. He looked very animated in whatever story he was telling, and then I saw him gesture to his thumb. _Oh, no_.

“Whatever he’s saying, he’s lying!” I called out, interrupting the person who had been speaking to me. Matty, clearly hearing my voice, looked up and waved with a smirk.

“Why did you even come with him if you were worried about his behaviour?” The guy I was speaking to huffed.

“I’m starting to forget.” I muttered, making my way through the crowd to work out what on earth he was saying. When I made my way to the small crowd that had formed around him, he was indeed telling the story about how I’d nearly cut off my thumb. However, he was telling it in a way I hadn’t heard before. He was embellishing the details about how helpful he was, about how happy I’d been to see him when I woke up, instead of his usual speech about how embarrassing it was for me. It felt pretty heart-warming to actually hear him acknowledge the other side of that night.

“That’s so sweet of you!” One of the girls from my English class cooed.

“She’s worth it.” Matty replied as he planted a kiss on my cheek. I instantly felt myself burning up, before plastering a smile on my face to try and keep up the charade I had concocted.

When I finally pried him away from his crowd, we went to go get another drink. What was the point of an open bar if you didn’t take advantage of it?

“You really think I’d throw you under the bus in front of your own classmates?” He asked as he nudged me in the ribs playfully.

“I just never know with you sometimes.” I chuckled as I grabbed a bottle of cider. “Are you feeling better, then?” I added, noting his much more jovial appearance than when I first saw him today.

“Hm?” He questioned as he took a swig from his drink.

“You looked pretty sleep deprived when you rocked up at mine earlier today.” I clarified.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Much better.” He nodded, glancing down at his dress shoes.

“What’s been keeping you up?” I asked in curiosity, starting to walk back over to the centre of the room.

“Well, if I’m honest-”

“All right everyone, take your seats.” A voice interrupted over the loud speakers.

Right, the speeches. People who had been notable in high school had been asked if they wanted to stand up and tell people all about where they were at now. Thank _fuck_ I hadn’t been picked for that. We began shuffling over to the lined-up seats at the front of the room near the stage, Matty and I happily taking a spot near the back. As the speakers went to sit down in their chairs on the stage, all of the legs collapsed beneath them, sending the six people up there sprawling onto the wooden floor. A few quiet laughs came from the crowd. But I recognised that handiwork.

“Did you do that?” I asked, turning to Matty.

“I have no idea why you’d suspect me.” He answered, clearly trying (and failing) not to smile.

“Is _that_ why you were asking about the woodshop?” I realised, my voice growing in volume slightly as it clicked in my head. Someone shushed me from the row behind us.

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak dumbass.” He shrugged.

“Real mature.” I mumbled, turning back to the stage to see them bringing new chairs over. He just wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side.

After that, the speeches continued without a hitch. I had to admit, at least Matty’s antics had brought some fun to the dull event. Because besides the chairs collapsing, the hour-long spectacle nearly put me to sleep. Once they’d finished up, they began playing the music a bit louder than what they had been and packed the chairs in front of the stage away, encouraging people to use it as a dancefloor.

“Do you have any idea on how frustrating you can really be?” I frowned as we made our way over to the corner of the room to speak without people overhearing us. “You could’ve hurt someone.”

“Come ooooon.” He said, rolling his eyes. “You know you want to make this place a bit livelier. You’re never gonna see these people again, right?” He continued, leaning against a rail.

“Right.” I agreed.

“So, let’s have some fun.” He grinned. “You know we make a good team.”

I thought about it for a moment, and he had a point. This event was pretty boring, and we _were_ a good team. Matty had been going out of his way tonight to do what I had asked of him, the least I could do was let him get some enjoyment too. “Fine.” I agreed. Watching as the large buck began chewing on Matty’s arm. “You might wanna keep an eye on your jacket, though.” I said as I gestured to the animal.

“Huh? Oh, wha- Hey!” He shouted as he yanked his sleeve out of the deer’s mouth.

Once he had been given permission, Matty kicked into full prank mode. Shoelaces were tired together under tables, lettering on signs were rearranged, jackets and hats mysteriously changed tables. Most of what he wanted to do was harmless fun, and it was entertaining to watch him dart around the room and work his magic. Tonight was actually turning out to be pretty fun. I had thought that maybe Matty might feel awkward about it, or maybe _I’d_ feel awkward about it, but things were going really well. It was nice to get the chance to have an evening with just him. Normally it was a group of us and I always felt mildly attention seeking for taking up his time. To have his undivided attention for the whole night left me with a warm feeling. Matty eventually wore himself out, and guests were beginning to get suspicious of the guy who seemed to constantly be in the background of every minor inconvenience. When he seemed satiated prank wise, he managed to con me into getting onto the dancefloor with him. Normally I’d be pretty intimidated about dancing in front of such a judging crowd, but between the good company and the many drinks I’d had, I didn’t really care.

Suddenly, a bunch of glitter starting spewing out through the vents onto the dance floor. The music stopped, drawing everyone’s attention up to the sparkly downfall. To be honest, this looked far better than any theming the school had done themselves. But I knew this was not something that they had planned.

“I admit, this is pretty impressive.” I said quietly to Matty, who just had a very proud smile.

“See? I told you that we should raise hell.” He laughed loudly.

“I guess it _was_ pretty fun.” I confessed.

“You should really listen to me more.” He said softly, taking my hand in his. I watched the glitter fall for a moment, before looking back down to see him still staring at me. I frowned at him, waiting for him to say something. “You have the cutest smile I’ve ever seen right now.”

“You’re looking pretty starry-eyed yourself there, mister.” I shot back, figuring that he was joking.

“Well, it’s hard not to be when you’ve got the best date in the room.” He added, tugging on my hand, pulling me closer to him.

“Wasn’t that meant to be _my_ plan?” I said with a chuckle.

“After speaking to your classmates, I’m pretty sure you got it backwards.” He answered as I placed a hand on his shoulder.

A moment or two passed before Matty took in a deep breath. “I was up all week because I was worried about ruining this for you.” He blurted out. “I didn’t want to be a disappointment.”

“You’d never disappoint me.” I dismissed.

“Things are always more daunting when you’re doing them with someone that you’re into, you know.” He explained.

“I… you… what?” In my surprise, I couldn’t get my words out right. Had he _not_ been kidding for the last five minutes with everything that he was saying? A lot of moments over the last six months suddenly made a lot more sense.

“You’re not getting me to say it twice.” He said with a small smile.

“How long?” Was all I could manage to ask.

“For ages.” He said simply. “Why do you think I stayed with you in the hospital? Why do you think I spend so much time with you? Why do you think I bother you so much? You think that it’s me who’s teasing you to the guys, but it’s them teasing me _about_ you.” He answered.

Everything that I had felt in the hospital was now in the forefront of my mind. Maybe I hadn’t been so crazy to want to flirt with Matty then. Certainly, in this moment, his confession had my heart rate picking up and my mind reeling. “Then what was with all the pranks?” I said, shoving his shoulder slightly.

“Kept your attention, didn’t it?” He chuckled.

“I suppose so.” I agreed. “I think I’m into you too.” I said quietly.

“I know.” He nodded.

“What?”

“You told me so when you first woke up in hospital. You slept for a few hours after that, though.” He elaborated. “You don’t remember?”

I shook my head, but for what I did remember, if I had said that, it made sense. “So… is this a real date then?” I asked out of curiosity.

“It can be.” He shrugged.

“I’d like that.” I smiled, leaning up slightly to catch him off guard and kiss him briefly. “But first, we’d better get out of here before they realise what you did.”


	13. Reading 'bout Yourself on a Plane - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by my good buddy [Red__moon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/red__moon) from the prompt list on tumblr~

Flights weren’t really a high point in my life, ironically. The cruising part of the journey was fine, so were the cramped seats, hell, even the meals were okay. It was just the take-off and landing that _sucked._ Everything was just far too risky. All of the moving parts that had the chance of failing. I hated it with a burning passion. Which, in hindsight, maybe moving a plane’s journey away from home was a bad idea. I should’ve anticipated that regular visits home would become a part of my agenda. But I was going to grin and bear this for the sake of my mother’s birthday. It would be fine. I was sure it was going to be _fine_. Except that some dark-haired guy was blocking the way to my seat. He was currently kneeling on his own seat in the middle, talking to the three guys sat behind him.

“Excuse me,” I started, catching his attention. He looked at me in surprise. “I’ve got that window seat.” I said as I gestured to the seat to his right.

He glanced down at his seat, before quickly scrambling to his feet and moving to stand in the aisle. “Oh, sorry, sorry. Let me just-” He rambled as he shuffled past me. It was a mission to not be in his personal space with how close the person behind me was standing. Why were planes always so cramped?

“Thanks.” I smiled politely as I squeezed into my seat.

“My pleasure.” He grinned.

Once I had taken my seat, and tightened my belt to an uncomfortable degree, I finally felt like I could relax momentarily on this red-eye. But I was pretty quickly knocked out of my relaxation.

“Matty, did you grab the duty-free tequila?” I heard the voice behind my call out.

“No, I told Hann to grab it.” The man next to me replied.

“That never happened.” The voice scoffed.

The man, Matty, supposedly, was quick to jump back up in his seat to face the offending voice. “I definitely did! When they said over the announcements to pick up your purchases, I said to Hann ‘would you grab that for me?’ ” He said, waving his hands about for emphasis.

“You were sleeping against your suitcase and I had to kick you awake.” Someone else chimed in.

“Yes, and _then_ I asked him to grab the tequila.” Matty said matter-of-factly.

“Are you telling me it’s still at the gate?” Yet another voice asked.

“Fuck sake, Matty.” Someone groaned.

“It’s your fault!” He shouted. A flight attendant who happened to be walking past gave him a threatening look, making him sit back down in his seat properly.

It looked like they were getting ready to close the doors. Some woman took the aisle seat on the left-hand side of Matty. They were closing the overhead compartments. We would be departing soon. I tried my best to keep my nerves under control.

“My apologies for them.” Matty said as he jabbed a thumb towards the three men sat behind us.

I looked at him for a moment, assessing the friendly smile on his face. “It’s fine.” I shrugged. “Why aren’t you sitting with your friends?”

“Because they only allow three to a row.” He said with a light laugh.

“Ah.” I nodded, feeling like a dumbass for even asking. That was what I got for being so distracted by worrying about when we’d take-off. “Sorry that you got stuck here instead of with them.” I added in an attempt to recover from my embarrassment.

“I’m not complaining.” He said with an amused smirk on his face. I was about to start cursing my luck for being stuck next to a sleaze for a ten-hour flight, but thankfully he clarified. “It’s been a long few months stuck with those guys, I wouldn’t mind some different company for a change.” He elaborated.

“Are you guys heading home?” I questioned in curiosity.

“Yeah. You?” He nodded eagerly as he began fiddling with the little air vents above his head. 

“Sort of. It’s not home anymore, but I’m seeing some family.” I answered. He made a noise of acknowledgement in response as he finally seemed to get the air conditioning to the right level.

The doors were locked. The safety video was shown. The engine roared to life. And then we were suddenly in the air. I stared out the window to my right as the buildings got smaller and smaller beneath us. It was always a surreal sight to see. I could appreciate taking off for the beauty in the process, but my eyes were still glued to the wing of the plane to make sure all those little flaps moved like they were supposed to. I didn’t even notice how tightly I had been gripping my arm rest until I was pulled out of my thoughts.

“You want some chocolate raisins?” Matty asked as he lightly tapped my shoulder.

I looked across at him in surprise, before glancing down at the bag of chocolates he was holding out. “Don’t we get food on the flight?” I frowned in confusion. I hadn’t thought to bring extra food.

“Oh, yeah. But I wanted some snacks.” He explained as he shoved a few in his mouth.

“You want me to ask if they can warm them up for you, Matty?” The voice furthest away from me called out.

“Shut _up_ , George.” He shouted back through gritted teeth.

“Huh?”

“Hard to explain. It’s a dumb joke. Ignore them.” He said with a dismissive hand wave.

On the plus side, my seat neighbour’s antics had distracted me until we hit cruising altitude. Once we were properly up in the sky, I could calm down. The lady on the aisle seat of our row had already fallen asleep. I wish I was able to achieve that sort of relaxation so quickly on a plane. But I could see the drinks cart coming by. _Brilliant_. Alcohol. Alcohol would calm me down more.

“Can I get you something to drink, sir?” The flight attendant asked as she pulled up next to us.

“What do you have in the way of red wine?” He asked as he eyed the cart.

“We have a pinot noir.” She answered. Matty stared at her expectantly, clearly waiting for her to continue, but that was their only option.

“I guess that’ll have to do.” He chuckled, before turning to me. “And?”

It took me a second to realise he was asking what _I_ wanted. I hadn’t noticed while I had been so wound up about if I was going to die in take-off, but this Matty guy was quite the looker. The dark curls framed his face well and accentuated his features in the right ways. I was unsure if that made this flight better or worse. It was hard to be attractive on a long-haul trip. “Oh, uh, the same. Thanks.” I said to the flight attendant.

“Don’t forget your tiny plastic cup.” He quickly chimed in as he grabbed one of the dainty cups off of the cart. The attendant watched him in concern as he did so, but didn’t say anything while they grabbed the two miniature bottles of wine. I couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to pass the ridiculous plastic cup over like a full-sized glass of wine.

Food was thankfully not far behind the drinks. There were the standard options of something chicken based, some beef based or a vegetarian option. But the beef ragu pasta smelled too good to pass up. The plastic sectioned plates were always amusing to me. With the little individually packaged main, side, bread roll, butter, and tiny cup of dessert. It was, to be fair, pretty tasty.

“You want my tiny fruit cup?” Matty asked as he gently nudged my elbow with his. “I’ll trade it for your- I swear to _god_ , Ross.” He shouted over the back of his seat, interrupting himself. “If you keep kicking my chair, I’m going to climb over this thing and start plucking your beard out hair by hair.”

“Well, stop reclining your seat so far when I’m trying to eat.” The man behind Matty shot back. He begrudgingly pulled his seat forward, muttering profanities to himself.

“I’ll trade it for your dinner roll.” The dark-haired man said, turning his attention back to me.

I shook my head in amusement. We were only one hour into this ten-hour flight from LA and it seemed like their squabbling was only likely to get worse. “Sure.” I said as I held the roll out to him.

“You guys seem to bicker a lot.” I noted as he placed his fruit cup on my tray.

He made a noise of agreement as he took a bite of bread, “That’s what happens when you’ve been friends since you were fourteen.” He agreed.

“God damn! That’s a long time.” I said in surprise.

“You’re telling me.” He huffed. “Nah, it’s alright. We’re like brothers. We just get on each other’s nerves after being cooped up together for so long.” I nodded in understanding.

The attendants were back around pretty quickly to collect meal trays and hand out the second round of drinks. I supposed that was why they gave small portions, to make sure they were consumed fast enough to clean up as soon as possible. The booze and the food were definitely starting to take effect. I felt like after this second tiny bottle of wine, I’d be drowsy enough to sleep. After tapping around on the touch screen in front of me a bit, the man next to me was eventually compelled to make his presence known again. I wasn’t complaining to have half-decent company next to me on such a long flight, so long as he didn’t keep me awake when I tried to sleep in half an hour.

“What are you watching?” He asked as he shuffled in his seat to face me better.

“I’m playing that dumb trivia game.” I sighed as I took a guess at an answer. Wrong. Who knows where the hell South Africa rates economically off the top of their head, though?

“Oh?” He sounded far more interested than this in-flight game warranted.

“The little trivia game that’s built into these things.” I replied as I nodded towards the screen. “I thought it might kill some time until I can sleep off the rest of the flight.”

“I’ll challenge you to see who can get the most points?” He offered.

I considered the suggestion for a moment, before shrugging, “Go on, then.”

“What do I get if I win?” He grinned with a devious look.

Looking around my tiny space, I tried to find something that could constitute a prize. Eventually I pulled out the in-flight magazine from the seat pocket. “This lovely magazine.” I deadpanned as I held it out like a game show host.

“Oh, _wow_. Exactly what I have always dreamed of owning.” Matty said, sarcasm lacing his tone as he held his hand against his heart.

“Alright,” He cracked his knuckles for emphasis, “let’s do this.”

“Me first?” I asked with an eyebrow raised. He gave a firm nod. The game was designed like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – it would present you the question and give you four options to choose from. “What is a group of pheasants in flight called? A bouquet, a parliament, a murder or a flock.” I read off the screen.

“Well, a parliament is owls, a murder is crows-” He began listing off on his fingers.

“It’s a bouquet.” I interjected. Matty watched with interest as I tapped the answer, only to have the big tick appear on my screen to indicate I was correct.

“Lucky guess.” He mumbled as he loaded up his own game.

“One, zero.” I reminded him.

Matty loaded up his first question, running past the tutorial it forced you to sit through. “What band had the hit single Cho- let’s skip this one.” He quickly hit the skip button on the bottom of the screen.

“Why?” I asked with a frown.

“I don’t know the answer.” He said in a strange tone as the next question popped up. “How many football players should be on the field at the start of every match?” He asked, looking over at me as if he was waiting for me to answer.

“Don’t look at me, I’m not helping you.” I said as I threw my hands up.

“I don’t need help. Was just curious if you knew.” He said smugly. “It’s eleven.” The big tick agreed with him.

“Don’t get too cocky, there.” I warned him as he did a quiet little fist pump to himself.

“One all.”

I noticed that they were beginning to dim the lights in the cabin, they must have finished cleaning up the dinner service. “Who was the lead singer of Culture Club?” I asked, trying to speak a bit softer.

“Boy George.” Matty instantly responded.

“Thanks, know-it-all.” I laughed.

“Fuck, wait-” He quickly reached over to try and tap my screen and mess up my answer. But it was too late, I had already gotten it right. “Did you really not know that?” He asked, looking quite mad at himself for giving me the answer.

“Doesn’t matter, I got the point.” I dismissed with a shrug.

“That’s not fair.” He argued as he pulled a hand through his curls.

“Your turn.”

Matty grumbled to himself before reading his next question, “Which fashion brand made the ‘Genius Jeans’ that became part of the Guinness World Records?” He read aloud.

I eyed the fancy boots that he was wearing, and the bright red pants, paired with the thrift store looking t-shirt. He looked like one of those guys who was up to date with fashion. Not that I agreed with his choices. “Looking at your… long-haul _outfit_ , I feel like you know the answer to that.” I noted.

“I do. It’s Gucci.” He nodded with a proud smile.

“Those can’t be comfortable for a flight.” I added as I tapped one of his boots with my shoe.

“It’s about the aesthetic.” He said with a serious look.

“You don’t need to look good for a ten-hour flight.” The last long-haul I’d been on, I was in my pyjamas. Thankfully I was at least wearing something respectable for this one, given my current seating arrangement.

“How else am I meant to impress pretty girls on the plane?” He said offhandedly as a passing flight attendant caught his attention.

“Hey, sorry,” Matty called out, trying to lean over the sleeping woman next to him and catch the attendant, “can we grab another two of these?” He said as he held up his, now empty, tiny bottle of red wine.

“Two?” I asked in confusion.

“You don’t want another?” He asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise. “Sorry, I probably should’ve asked first.” He admitted sheepishly as he pulled a water bottle from his seat pocket.

“It’s just that I’m gonna have to keep asking you to get up so I can go to the bathroom.” I chuckled.

“You can get me-” A swift kick to the back of Matty’s chair, hard enough that I felt it too, cut him off. The water bottle that had been in his hand ended up knocking him in the face with the impact and then spilled water all down his shirt. “Ow!” He shouted as he jumped up in his seat and began swatting behind him. “Ross! Fuck _off_ , you coffee table!” He complained before sitting back in his seat.

“What was that about?” I asked in amusement.

“Don’t worry about it.” He huffed. I noticed the lady on the other side of him try and roll over in her sleep. “Whose question is it?”

“Mine. Which planet has the highest gravity?” I asked, scanning over the answers. “Easy, Jupiter.” I grinned as I flashed him a smug look.

“Which bone are babies born without?” Matty asked. He let out a low noise, I assumed because he was thinking about his answer. “Surely the ones in their ears, or something? I don’t know what those are called, though.” He said as he looked over the answers. 

“Nope.” I shook my head.

“Give me a hint.” He urged as leaned into my personal space. It was hard not to notice that he smelled nice. That wasn’t an easy feat to accomplish on a red-eye long-haul. I rolled my eyes, before tapping my knee. “Kneecaps!” He beamed as he hit the answer – probably with a bit too much force, for how much it knocked the seat in front.

“That was too easy. I should’ve been more discreet.” I said with a sigh.

“Your turn.”

“When was the first iPhone released?” I read off the screen. I took a stab at 2009, only to be hit with a giant cross. “Ah, 2007. I should’ve known that.” I reprimanded myself.

“Eyy! I’m up a point.” Matty cheered.

“Who is Green Lantern’s nemesis?” He asked. “Uh… hm…” He scratched as his soft curls with a frown. “I wanna use my phone a friend. Hann-” He started as he began climbing out of his seat.

I grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking him back down into his chair. “No, that’s not allowed!” I hissed quietly, trying to keep it down given most people around us were now sleeping.

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t have any friends I can phone.” I pointed out.

“You’ve got me.” He offered with a smile.

“That doesn’t count, I’m trying to beat you.” I laughed lightly.

“It’s Kal-El.” I heard a voice quietly answer from behind me.

“Hey! Don’t help him!” I called out. Matty just laughed triumphantly.

“You gotta get this one to bring us back up to even.” He said, rubbing his hands together in what could only be described as glee at the fact he was in the lead. I waited patiently for the question to load up.

“Which song by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee has the most views (of all time) on YouTube?” I read aloud.

“Despacito.” He answered straight away.

“That’s that song from those memes, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He answered with a nod.

“How do you know that?” I questioned as I tried my best not to laugh at his weird general knowledge.

“I’m on the internet too much.” He admitted, seemingly unphased by that.

“Why did you give me the answer?” I asked with a confused frown. He just shrugged.

We continued through the trivia game, the questions getting progressively more difficult and obscure. There was a bathroom and drinks break in the middle, just to keep our mental energy high. In the end, the score was seven to nine, in Matty’s favour. I just couldn’t compete with the number of strange facts crammed into his brain.

“Congratulations, Matty.” I said, reaching into my seat pocket. “You have earned yourself a copy of American Way.” I presented it to him as if it was the finest of prizes. He gasped quietly before taking it from my hands. And then, he stood up, and began his acceptance speech, much to my horror.

“I’d like to thank my parents, for playing trivial pursuit with me when I was young-” He started, holding his magazine proudly and feigning as if he was tearing up.

“Sit _down_.” I said through gritted teeth as I grabbed his arm and tried to pull him down. The lady on the other side of him was now wide awake, I flashed her an apologetic smile.

“But I haven’t finished my speech.” He pouted as he sat down. “You want another wine?”

“Nah, I’m pretty tired.” I declined. “I think it’s time to try and sleep off the remainder of this flight.” I declared.

“I suppose so.” He agreed.

The wine definitely did the trick to help me get to sleep faster. It felt like as soon as I leaned up against the window, I was out. But it also didn’t feel like a very satisfying rest, because it was all too soon that I was awoken by something tickling my nose. The sensation of it ended up invading my subconscious, resulting in my having a dream that a spider was on my nose. My eyes snapped open, only to see that it was, in fact, not a spider, but Matty’s hair. Somewhere through the flight, he had ended up leaning on my shoulder, and I was now subsequently leaning my head against his. His soft curls were as nice as they had looked earlier, and now that my nose was practically buried in them, the nice smell I had caught a whiff of earlier was amplified tenfold. I was too easily caught up in the comfort and warmth of how we were sitting, quickly dozing back off. The next time I awoke was when a patch of turbulence caused the plane to shudder.

I awoke with a start, and so did Matty. There was a dazed moment where I tried to remember where I was and who I was leaning against, before I remembered. “Oh, uh, sorry.” I said quietly, feeling my cheeks turning red as I shuffled away from him.

“It’s fine.” He mumbled, adjusting his worn t-shirt. I opened the window shutter, seeing that it was now well and truly daylight. The ground also looked a lot closer than what it had when I last checked.

“Are we… are we landing?” I asked apprehensively.

“We must be.” He yawned as he stretched his arms up above his head.

“Mmmm, _great_.” I squeaked out, the wave of anxiety hitting me like a cold bucket of water to the face.

Matty quickly noticed my distress. “What’s up?” He questioned.

“I just hate this part.” I confessed, gripping the arm rest of my seat tightly.

“What?” He asked in confusion.

“Landing.” I clarified. “I hate it.”

“Why?” We hit another patch of turbulence as the words left his mouth, and I felt my knuckles starting to turn white.

“It feels like the most likely time for something to go wrong.” I started to explain. “I just keep talking myself in circles. I keep imagining the worst and all of the potential things that could happen.” The more I spoke about it, the worst the thoughts got. Maybe I should’ve just kept quiet. Probably would’ve been easier if I hadn’t made any new friends on this flight that I had to discuss my fear of certain aspects of flying with. Could’ve just continued to suffer in silence like I usually did.

“Nothing’s gonna happen.” He tried to reassure me.

“You don’t know that.” I shot back.

I heard a soft sigh come from his direction, but my eyes were glued to the wing. “Do you trust me?” He asked.

“Should I?” I asked absent-mindedly.

My attention was dragged away from the wing of the plane as Matty pried my fingers off of the armrest and took my hand in his. I stared down at our hands for a second before looking up at him. “I have been on _thousands_ of planes. This is much safer than you think.” He said softly.

“Thousands?” I asked in disbelief. Thousands was a _lot_.

“Yes.” He nodded. “You are more likely to be struck by lightning than die in a plane crash.”

“Is that true?” I questioned. I didn’t know enough about planes or lightning to dispute it.

“Even if we _do_ crash, they have safety measures in place.” Normally that was the sort of thing that would wind me up more, but the calm tone in which he said it, and the comforting look on his face… for once I felt alright with this.

“Okay.” I resigned.

Matty’s hand thankfully didn’t receive the same treatment as what the armrest had on take-off – I was pretty sure that my nail imprints would stay in the hard foam for many a flight to come. When we were safely on the ground, I finally felt the worry start to dissipate. I reluctantly let go of Matty’s hand as I let out the breath I had been holding.

“Um, thanks. For that.” I said quietly to him as we taxied to the terminal.

“It’s fine.” He smiled as he ran his hand through his curls. They were a lot less neat not than what they had been when he first sat down. “Happy to help.”

As soon as we stopped moving, people were quick to unbuckle their seatbelts and start grabbing their carry-on from the overhead compartments. Matty’s friends sat behind us also readily pulled him into conversation about their plans now they had arrived. Between the other passengers, the four of them trying to sort themselves out, and me grabbing my own stuff, goodbyes were forgotten. I had to admit, a part of me wished it had ended differently. Matty seemed like a great guy. He had been good entertainment for what was set to be a boring flight, and he did a good job of calming me down when I was usually pretty inconsolable. I got the feeling there also might have been a bit of a vibe between us. But that could’ve been my mind playing tricks on me thanks to all the wine. However, it would’ve been nice to have at least traded numbers.

By the time I had made my way to the baggage collection area, I had accepted that I would have to forget my brief seat neighbour. It would be a fun memory to look back on during the flight home.

“Hey, hold on!” I heard a voice call as I grabbed my bag off the carousel. As I turned around, I saw a familiar mop of curls jogging my way with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Hi, Matty.” I grinned, unable to contain my excitement about seeing him again. He quickly swept me up in an unexpected hug. “What’s up?” I asked, trying to hide my blushing.

“Sorry that I didn’t get to say goodbye back there.” He apologised as he rocked onto the balls of his feet. “Look, I know you said that you were only here to visit family, but if you get some free time, feel free to hit me up for a drink.” He offered quickly as he handed me a slip of paper. I took it without a second thought.

“Maybe we can go find a pub quiz somewhere.” I suggested with a smirk.

He laughed loudly, and I noticed behind him the lady that had been sat on his left glaring in his direction at the sound, “I’d be keen for that.” He agreed.

“Speak to you soon, then.” I nodded.

“I look forward to it.”


	14. Ran Into Some Complications - Matty Healy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the ever lovely @imagine-that-100 for the request from the prompt list on tumblr.

Why did time always seem to go by so slowly when you were stuck waiting by yourself? Was there a reason that seconds seemed to feel like minutes? Was it just mind games or did it literally create some weird kind of wormhole? Probably the former. I checked my phone for what felt like the hundredth time, hoping that I finally had a ‘on my way!’ message sitting there, only to come up empty. Again. So much for meeting at the bar for six - it was already six thirty. I sighed to myself, thanking the bartender as they handed me the cider I had ordered.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing at the bar all by yourself?” I heard a voice call from behind me. I instantly gritted my teeth as I turned to face the source of the sleazy comment. Sure enough, the crooked smile, the greasy, slicked back hair, he looked as shady as he sounded.

“Just waiting for a mate.” I said, trying to diffuse this situation before it started.

“They left you here all alone?” He asked as he slid into the stool next to mine. “Let me buy you a drink.” He added as he tried to flag the bartender down. Ugh. Why.

“No thanks, got one.” I said as I held up my cider. “And they’re on their way.” I dismissed.

“I’ll just keep this stool warm for them, then.” He grinned. I could smell the whiskey on his breath. Gross. This evening was headed in a downward spiral if I didn’t cut this off soon.

“I- you really don’t have to.” I grimaced, my eyes darting around the room to try and spot an easy way out of this. I caught sight of a group of four men walking in, eyeing them hopefully. The one closest to the bar seemed well kept. He had a grey suit jacket on, his straight hair was neatly combed back, he was laughing with his friends. He seemed friendly. He’d do. “Oh, this is him now.”

I hopped off my stool, stepping in front of the dark-haired man. “What took you so long?” I asked with a warm smile.

He stared at me in bewilderment, “Me?”

“Yeah, you. Come here.” I said with a light laugh, trying to pretend that this wasn’t awkward.

“What? Why?” He asked with a confused frown.

I grabbed the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him down closer to my level to try and not be overhead. “Please just come here.” I said, trying to look as imploring as I possibly could. This was going to look bad on me if he didn’t come with me. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if this guy shrugged me off and I had to walk back over there. He stared at me for a long moment, before turning back to his friend who had stopped to see what was happening.

“I, erm, suppose I’ll be back in a bit?” He said with a shrug.

Thankfully, this man came willingly with me back towards the bar. And I was even more grateful for him being quite clued on. He took one look between me, and the greasy dude sitting opposite me, to get the hint.

“So sorry, love. Traffic was awful.” He said as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and kissed my cheek. Geez, he was really going all in. I felt my face burning at the unexpected attention. At least it was going to look the part. “Have you already got a drink?”

“Yeah. Do you want one?” I nodded, turning to him. He really was standing awfully close to me. At this proximity I was able to smell the pleasant smell of the aftershave that he had used.

“I’ll just have my usual.” He said with a smirk.

“Uhh…” My eyes widened as I processed his answer. Fuck. Had this guy just agreed to help me to be equally as annoying as the sleazy one? Maybe I’d just made this situation so much worse. I quickly scanned over his appearance. The neat hair, the grey jacket, he seemed like the kind of person to drink a clear drink. “Gin and tonic.” I ordered apprehensively.

“Close enough.” He chuckled under his breath.

The bartender brought over the extra drink and passed it over to my new found fake date.

“How was work? Did you get that booking sorted out?” He asked casually. God, he was smooth. He was definitely the right person to have grabbed to act like who I was waiting for.

“Yeah! It was a hassle but I got there in the end.” I laughed with a nod, playing along. I was surprised at how easy this felt, to be honest. This guy gave me the vibes of someone that I’d like to have a genuine conversation with, rather than a pretend one. “What about you?” I asked back. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. Taking a quick glance at it, I saw that it was a message from the friend I had been waiting on – saying that they couldn’t make it. Phew. Good thing I had dragged over someone else instead of just waiting.

“The studio was a bit gruelling but that’s nothing new.” He shrugged. Studio? What on earth did this guy do for a living? He must’ve noticed me frowning at his comment, because he just raised an eyebrow like he was challenging me to question it. In taking a good look at him, this guy was a bit of a looker. There were definitely worse people I could’ve grabbed. “But this evening is making up for it.” He added as he took a sip from his glass. Wait. Was he _flirting_?

It seemed that _whatever_ this guy was doing worked, because my creepy stalker decided to get up and walk off. I let out a sigh of relief as I looked over at the empty stool.

“Thank god he left.” I huffed.

“He’ll come back.” The dark-haired man shrugged as he slipped into the empty seat. I gave him a questioning look as to how he could know that. “He left his whiskey on the bar.” He added as he gestured towards it.

I nodded in understanding. It was nice at least to have a breather to recompose myself and finally have a sip of my drink. “Thanks for this.” I said after a minute of silence.

“It’s okay.” He replied with what looked like a genuine smile, picking up his gin. “I can think of much worse ways to spend my night.” He added as he eyed me over the rim of his glass.

Now that was _definitely_ flirting. Part of my brain found it ironic to have replaced one guy trying to hit on me with another. But… I didn’t mind so much with this one. “Are you flirting with me?” I accused.

“Are _you_ blushing?” He shot back. The air of confidence surrounding this guy was undeniably attractive.

Before I had a chance to respond, greasy hair man was back. He frowned at the offender sitting in his stool.

“Do you wan-” He started to say, turning to me. But he was cut off before he could finish whatever he was going to ask.

“I can’t believe that you also listen to them!” My fake date laughed loudly. He fell into these shenanigans far too readily. But I wasn’t about to complain. “Shh… listen…” He said, holding up a hand to quiet us. I stopped talking, trying to listen to whatever he had heard. “That’s the sound of me falling in love with you.” He continued.

I let out an uneasy laugh, trying to shrug off his comment. “I’ve been listening to them for ages.” I responded, trying to keep up with how quickly he was building this story.

“Ah, sorry, mate. Just nice to be together after a long day.” He said with a corny grin as he placed a hand on my knee. I looked down at it for a moment, trying very hard to keep my reactions to his blatant flirting in check. “Matty, by the way.” This guy - Matty, said as he stuck out his hand to sleazy dude. “And you are..?” He asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Leaving.” He answered abruptly as he reached between us and picked up his whiskey, before heading on his way.

“Well… that worked.” I chuckled.

“Seems I was an effective deterrent.” Matty said with a nod as he took a swig from his glass.

“You did a good job with that.” I agreed. “You were far too good at it, though.”

“Too good?” He asked with a surprised grin. “That doesn’t seem like it should be a problem.”

I shrugged. “Just makes me question how many times girls have roped you into situations like this.”

“Roping _me_ into it? What if _I_ was the one trying to get out of the awkward situation?” He questioned.

“You really get that much unwanted attention?”

“More than you can imagine.”

We chatted for a bit, actually starting to get to know each other properly now that we didn’t have to play pretend that we already did. It turned out that he was in a band, hence the studio time earlier today. The guys that he had come in with were his band mates, getting a drink after a long day. He had a general sense of charisma and charm about him. The more I talked to him, the more I wanted to keep talking to him. And thankfully the flirting dropped off once there was no longer anyone standing nearby to try and convince. It was easier on my brain to process our conversation without having to also process an attractive man hitting on me. Before I knew it, an hour had passed. I was surprised that he was still hanging around, given that what I had asked of him was done now.

“Did you want get out of here?” Matty eventually offered nonchalantly.

I choked on the cider I had been sipping, trying to recompose my thoughts. “What?” I spluttered.

“He’s still side eyeing you across the bar,” He explained, gesturing towards the other side of the room. He was right, sleazy man was boring holes into the side of my head. “if we leave together then he should get the hint.” Right. That made much more sense than the alternative reason as to why he’d ask that.

Matty’s plan worked. We were not followed when we stepped outside into the brisk night air and ordered an uber. He sent a message to his friends, letting them know that he had to leave. I felt bad. His night had been forced to end because of me. I told him that it was fine now, that I’d be happy to head home by myself and he could go back inside to his friends. But he insisted that he make sure I get home safe. The sentiment was pretty heart-warming, to be honest. I doubt I could’ve picked a better guy to help me in such a shitty situation. Once we were settled in the back of the car, I could finally breathe a bit easier. It was nice to not feel like I was being shadowed.

“Sorry for ruining your night.” I apologised.

“Ah, you didn’t ruin it.” He said with a dismissive hand wave. “I dread the thought about what might’ve happened if I hadn’t shown up.” He continued, staring out the window pensively, before he seemed to knock himself out of whatever train of thought he had been on. “But good thing I was.” He said as he turned back to me with a bright grin.

“Well, thank you.” I nodded. “You were good company, for a fake date.” I chuckled, nudging his side playfully.

“Well… I wouldn’t mind taking you out to a bar again as a _not_ fake date.” He offered, running a hand through his hair. He… what? My brain took a second to comprehend what he was suggesting. “If you’d let me.” He quickly added.

My thoughts kicked into gear as I realised that he thought I might decline. “Yeah. Yeah! That sounds like a good idea.” I agreed.

“I assure you, I’m a much better real date than fake date.”


End file.
